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Remote Access

A summary of remote access methods for computing resources.

Remote journal access

The University Library advertises a browser extension (Lean Library) that can be used to access online journals when you are not connected to the University network. There is much more information about remote journal access at https://www-library.ch.cam.ac.uk/how-access-online-resources-remotely

VPNs

Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) enable IP traffic to travel securely over a public TCP/IP network (e.g. the Internet) by encrypting all traffic from one network to another. Effectively you get an IP address on the private network. This is the simplest way to connect.

Information about the Departmental VPN service, including downloadable installer packages, is available at https://www.ch.cam.ac.uk/computing/openvpn-service

The University Computing Service also provides a VPN Service which will get you an IP address in cam.ac.uk but most chemists will probably want to use the Chemistry service as that gives you direct access to the main Chemistry network.

ssh access via a Bastion host

Our department firewall blocks most incoming traffic, but ssh is allowed to the Bastion Host.This avoids the overhead of VPN but is more difficult to use.

There's documentation for simple use of SSH (Secure SHell), SFTP (Secure FTP) and SCP (Secure Copy).

If you regularly access particular machines by SSH (a Linux desktop or compute server, for example) from Linux or MacOS, having this in your SSH config file (~/.ssh/config) should save you some bother: (The configuration tells ssh when connecting to myworkmachine.ch.private.cam.ac.uk to first open an ssh connection to citadel.ch.cam.ac.uk and route the connection to myworkmachine over the connection to citadel.)

Host myworkmachine.ch.private.cam.ac.uk
    User CRSID
    ProxyCommand ssh -l CRSID citadel.ch.cam.ac.uk -W myworkmachine.ch.private.cam.ac.uk:22

If you use Windows at home and need to ssh to machines at work we recommend using MobaXterm, especially if you are not using VPN, as it simplifies making a connection via the bastion host.

Remote Access to Windows Desktop

The most straightforward way to do this is to use the VPN and you normal Remote Desktop software, but it's also possible to set up a tunnel through the bastion host. See SSH Tunnel Windows Terminal Services/Remote Desktop for more details

Remote access to Linux desktop

More Technical Tricks You Can Play With ssh Tunnels

System status 

System monitoring page

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