Working Remotely

Working Remotely

Below are a collection of links to helpful information and tools available at the University for individuals attempting to work remotely. Covered on this page:

  1. Forward your VoIP phone
  2. Check your VoIP phone’s voicemail remotely
  3. Consider Cisco Jabber for answering your work phone on your cellphone
  4. Use the VPN for access to campus restricted systems
  5. Set up Remote Desktop
  6. Use Zoom for online meetings
  7. Take advantage of various UFL licensed cloud services
  8. Consider setting up Microsoft Teams for your workgroup
  9. Electronically sign documents with UF DocuSign
  10. Working Remotely information from other UF offices

Forward your VoIP phone

If you are still in the office and have access to your handset, use the following procedure to forward calls to your home or cell phone:

  • Press the Forward all Softkey (located under the screen display). You will hear 2 beeps
  • Enter the phone number you want your calls forwarded to
  • If forwarding off campus dial ”9” in front of number
  • If long distance Dial ”9”+1+area code +number
  • To forward directly to voicemail – Press the Forward all Softkey (located under the screen display). Press the Message Button . Look for the Forward All icon next to your line button.
  • To Cancel call forwarding, press the Fwd Off Softkey (located under the screen display).

If you’ve already left the office and need to establish or change your call forwarding, you still can using the Cisco Unified Communications Self Care Portal (connect to the UF VPN first). Login to the portal with your Gatorlink username and password.

  • Login to the GatorLink VPN
  • Log on to the Cisco Unified Communications Self Care Portal (if you have issues check the KB article linked below)
  • Enter your GatorLink username and password and click the Sign In button.
  • Click Call Forwarding on the left pane.
  • Put a checkmark to the left of Forward all calls to:
  • Click on the drop down arrow and choose Add a new number
  • Enter the phone number you want your office phone call forwarded to. If the phone number is local, enter 9 and the seven digit phone number (e.g. 95551212). If the phone number is long distance, enter 9,1, and the 10 digit phone number (e.g. 919545551212)
  • Click Save and close the webpage

Related KB Articles:

Check your VoIP phone’s voicemail remotely

Easily check your phone’s voicemail using the Cisco Unity Connection portal or set up voicemail-to-email by submitting a ticket to UFIT (info found in this KB). Login to the portal with your Gatorlink username and password.

Related KB Articles:

Consider Cisco Jabber for answering your work phone on your cellphone

Cisco Jabber is a program or app that you run on your computer or mobile device which connects to, and acts, as your UF VoIP handset when it is running. Among other things it allows you to make phone calls using your UF line. So, instead of forwarding your phone line you can actually answer it directly.

Cisco Jabber requires specific user device configuration in order to function and should be requested through UF Telecommunications. Additionally, there is a licensing fee for the service that is currently being waived.

More information can be found on UFIT’s softphone services website.

Related KB Articles:

Use the VPN for access to campus restricted systems

The most important tool in UF’s arsenal for the work-at-home user may be the UF VPN. Use the UF VPN for access to campus-restricted systems (https://vpn.ufl.edu) which include network drives, remote desktop, and, in many cases, your website’s administrative dashboard. The VPN would not be needed for myUFL, email, or other GatorCloud services.

Remote desktop is not possible without logging into the UF VPN.

Tips and Tricks:

  • It is recommended that you use the Campus Only tunnel by logging in with [GatorLink]@ufl.edu/campus as your username when authenticating. By doing this only traffic to UF will be sent through the VPN. This will help share the available bandwidth dedicated to the VPN by those needing access to UF’s systems…. and keep your Netflix traffic off UF’s network.
  • You can use the same client to connect to the UF Health VPN by using [GatorLink]@ufl.edu/health as the username.
  • If you are enrolled in multifactor-authentication (MFA) and have trouble getting the push notification before the VPN login times out, use the DUO Mobile app to get a passcode and use the password syntax of [password],[passcode] to login.

Related KB Article:

Set Up Remote Desktop

Remote desktop allows you to connect to your desktop computer in your office from a remote location using a computer. In that case, your local computer’s keyboard, mouse, and monitor act as if they are connected to your office computer. In most cases you will need to discuss remote desktop options with your local IT support.

Tips and Tricks:

  • Do NOT use the Shutdown option from the Windows Power menu or your computer will not be available the next time you attempt to connect with Remote Desktop.
  • If you have multiple screens at home, you can use them with remote desktop but the feature must be enabled on the Display tab of the extended Show Options page.

Related KB Articles:

Use Zoom for online meetings

Zoom is a simple to use video conferencing service available to all faculty, staff, and students that allows meetings of unlimited duration for up to 300 participants. You can use Zoom for video conferencing, voice, chat, and screensharing.

Tips and Tricks:

  • Don’t like people looking at your background because it is distracting or contains information you don’t want to broadcast? Hide it with the Virtual Background setting in the desktop client (click for Zoom’s Virtual Background help page)
  • Use the push-to-talk feature. Mute yourself and whenever you need to speak, hold down the spacebar to be unmuted. (This settings is on be default but can be turned off on the Audio tab of the desktop client’s settings.)
  • Don’t want your camera on by default? Turn it off on the Video tab within the desktop client’s settings.
  • Don’t want your mic on be default? Turn it off by default on the Audio tab within the desktop client’s settings.
  • Hate having to always click “Join with computer audio” when starting or joining a meeting? Default that setting within the Audio tab of the desktop client’s settings.
  • The desktop client’s settings do not have access to all the settings of Zoom. Some settings have to be set within your profile on UF’s Zoom website at https://ufl.zoom.us/.

Related KB Articles:

Take advantage of various UFL licensed cloud services

The University has contracts signed with several cloud services such as Microsoft Office 365 (includes OneDrive, Office Online, SharePoint, Teams, and Streams), G-Suite (including Google Docs, Hangouts, and Drive), and Dropbox for Education. Collectively these services are branded by UFIT as GatorCloud.

More information about GatorCloud services can be found at https://cloud.it.ufl.edu/.

Consider setting up Microsoft Teams for your workgroup

Microsoft Teams provides a real-time “workspace” for collaboration and communication. Use Microsoft Teams for video conferencing, voice, chat, share files and applications, and store documents features. The desktop and mobile apps for Android and iPhone share functionality for communication and collaboration so you can easily stay connected when mobile.

At UF, IFAS has been a very early adopter and has developed a complete training on Microsoft Teams and made it available to everyone at UF. Start at the IFAS Microsoft Teams SharePoint Online site.

Electronically sign documents with UF DocuSign

Information found at https://it.ufl.edu/ufdocusign

Review information provided by other UF offices