- Click on Start and enter This PC
- Right Click on This PC and select Properties
- Under View basic information about your computer, scroll down to Computer name, domain, and workgroup settings (see image below)
- Record the Full Computer Name of your computer, which you’ll need to entre on your home computer.
- IMPORTANT: do not shut down your office computer. Please just lock the screen when you leave it.
- Need help? Email the Service Desk or see the support page.
How to connect to your office computer from outside of the Concordia network
By combining the Virtual Private Network (VPN) and Remote Desktop, Concordia staff and faculty can access a work computer from an off-campus device.
Step 1: Get your computer name
From your campus computer, determine the full name of your office computer.
Step 2. Get the VPN
Make sure that you have Multi-factor authentication enabled :
- Download the VPN FortiClient software and install the VPN FortiClient by double clicking on the executable file.
- Please note: the Forticlient app may already be on your desktop. If you see the Forticlient icon on your work desktop, please uninstall the current version of VPN FortiClient and install the latest version from the Concordia Hub site (if you have admin rights on the computer). If you don’t have admin rights on the computer, please contact the Service Desk
- MFA authentication will be automatically activated for you when establishing a VPN connection with Concordia (make sure to have your mobile device with you
- Need help? Email the Service Desk or see the support page.
- If you don't know your computer name, contact the Service Desk.
Instructions
Select the option that corresponds to your operating system for instructions on how to download and configure the installation software.
To uninstall the FortiClient VPN software, please follow the FortiClient Windows uninstall guide.
To uninstall the FortiClient VPN software on a Mac, please perform the following steps:
1. Open the Applications folder.
2. Find and run on the "FortiClientUninstaller.app" application.
3. Follow the steps in the uninstaller application until it is completed.
4. Once the application is uninstalled, restart your computer.
5. Proceed with the installation of the FortiClient VPN.
If there are any existing installations of FortiClient, uninstall it using one of these commands within Terminal:
- # sudo apt autoremove --purge forticlient
- # sudo apt-get remove forticlient
- Restart the machine, navigate to the etc folder and delete the FortiClient folder
To install FortiClient on your Windows computer, please follow the FortiClient Windows install guide
To install FortiClient on your Mac computer, please follow the FortiClient Mac install guide
To install the newly downloaded FortiClient version:
1. Change directory to the location of the downloaded installer file within terminal
2. Run the following commands inside of Terminal:
# sudo dpkg -i <forticlient file name.rpm or .deb>
# sudo apt install -f
NOTE: Ignore the error messages that occur after running the first command. The errors will be resolved after running the following command.
3. To launch the newly installed FortiClient GUI, type this in the terminal and hit Enter:
# forticlient gui
- Enter the following values (see screen shots below) and make sure to:
- Have Customize port 443 flag activated
- Have Enable Single Sign On flag activated
- Save the configuration
- Click on SAML Login button
- Enter your email address and your password
- You will receive an MFA challenge on your mobile device, you need to approve it (or you will enter the 6 digits code from your hardware token key)
Step one:
On the first screen, you will need to insert your Concordia email address. For reference, for faculty and staff, this will be first.last@concordia.ca and for students, it will be netname@live.concordia.ca.
Step two:
The second screen will ask for your Concordia email address again and the associated password.
For the first two steps is important to ensure you use your email address and not your netname. Using your netname will result in an error message.
Step three:
You will be prompted to approve your sign-in request with MFA.
Step four:
The final screen will ask if you wish to stay signed in. Please use the following instructions:
- If you are using a personal computer, you can select “yes”, and you will not be prompted to sign in again on your device for the remainder of the day when accessing your VPN.
- If you are using a shared computer, borrowed from the library for example, please select “no” to ensure that unauthorized individuals do not gain access to your VPN connection once the device is returned.
Step 3: Connecting to the Concordia network
- From your home computer, open Remote Desktop Connection by navigating to the following location: Start > All Programs > Accessories > Remote Desktop Connection
- In the Computer field, enter the full computer name of your office computer (See Step 2).
- Select Connect
- You will be prompted to enter your credentials. Enter your netname in the following format: CONCORDIA\[yournetname]. In the password field, enter the password for your netname.
- Select OK
- From your home computer, open the App Store.
- Download and install Microsoft Remote Desktop.
- Open Microsoft Remote Desktop by navigating to Launchpad > Microsoft Remote Desktop.
- Click Add PC.
- In the PC name field, enter the full computer name of your office computer (from Step 1).
- Click Add.
Double click your newly made connection.
You will be prompted to enter your credentials. Enter your netname in the following format: CONCORDIA\[yournetname] as your username. In the password field, enter the password for your netname.
Once the installation is complete, open the FortiClient software from the applications folder on your computer and accept the license agreement
To configure your VPN Connection
Click: Configure VPN
- Connection Name: Concordia VPN
- Description: Concordia VPN
- Remote Gateway: vpn.concordia.ca
- Customize port: 443
- Enable Single Sign on (SSO) for VPN Tunnel: Yes
- You will be required to provide a valid Concordia email address and password to establish a VPN connection.
- You will receive an MFA challenge on your mobile phone, you need to approve it (or you will enter the 6 digit code from your hardware key)
FAQ
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS jammy / FortiClient VPN only version 7.0.7.0246 (latest)
At the start of every session, you will need to connect to the VPN prior to adding the following:
1/ add to /etc/resolv.conf
nameserver 8.8.8.8
or
nameserver 132.205.1.1
sudo dpkg -i forticlient_vpn_7.0.7.0246_amd64.deb
If it needs a dependency (libnss3-tools), install with
sudo apt install libnss3-tools
May also need the following:
- Enable unstable Debian repo by adding
#Adding for unstable
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian sid main non-free contrib
to /etc/apt/sources.list
- Limit updates to Stable, only allow installing using unstable
sudo nano /etc/apt/preferences
Package: *
Pin: release a=stable
Pin-Priority: 700
Package: *
Pin: release a=testing
Pin-Priority: 650
Package: *
Pin: release a=unstable
Pin-Priority: 600
- sudo apt update
- Install dependencies (sid is from unstable)
sudo apt-get -t sid install libappindicator1
sudo apt install libgconf-2-4