Skip to content
Demo

You are viewing sanitised, fictional content. Internal Help Desk procedures are not included in this build.

Sign in for the full platform
learnITlearnIT dashboard
Knowledge Base

What the VPN is, and who actually needs it

A large share of VPN tickets come from people who do not need the VPN at all. Knowing what it is for lets you resolve those in one sentence.

VPN

Updated 15 Jul 2026·Help Desk Leadership·Revision 5

A VPN creates an encrypted connection from a device to the university network, so that a computer sitting in an apartment can reach resources that are only published inside the campus network.

Usually needs the VPN

  • Reaching a department file share from off campus
  • Administrative systems published only on the internal network
  • Remote access to an on-campus workstation
  • Certain licensed research or lab software that checks for a campus address

Usually does not need the VPN

  • Email and calendar
  • The learning management system
  • Cloud document storage and collaboration tools
  • Video meetings
  • Anything the user reaches fine on campus wireless without signing in to anything extra
VPN Client DownloadApproved VPN client installers and configuration profiles.Awaiting configuration by an administrator
Related articleOpen the full procedure
Tagsvpnremoteaccessfundamentals

Related

Procedures that usually come up alongside this one.