With the move to remote working situations for many employees and the move to online coursework for students, the University’s IT systems, including the phone network, must stay operational and accessible to a larger than normal number of users working simultaneously. To ensure the networks and services continue to run smoothly, IT is requesting members of the University community adopt the following practices:
Remote Access/VPN
VPN is used by faculty, staff, and students to access the University computer network from a remote location. IT is asking users to avoid unnecessary VPN logins. This will reduce the number of users competing for system resources and help maintain services for critical business use.
As a reminder, for non-Medical Center employees and students, the following do NOT require VPN but may require DUO: URFinancials, URStudent, O365 email, Gmail (except from China), Blackboard, HRMS, Service Desk, and Microsoft Office.
Voicemail
Check the voicemail reference guides for instructions to retrieve your messages from outside the office. You could also create a secondary voicemail message or update your email signature to let people know when you’re working remotely and to use your mobile or other number to reach you. This can help prevent office voicemail boxes from getting full and unable to accept new messages.
Faculty and staff should not forward their office phone line to an off-campus phone number because this significantly strains the University’s telecommunications system. University IT will need to proactively remove non-essential phones forwards to non-University phones.