Summary #

SecureSchool has a feature called “Home-To-School/Office VPN”, which allows home users to connect to the school network.  This article explains what it does and briefly how it works.  There are other articles in the Knowledge Base with troubleshooting tips to help you if you’re having problems.

More Information #

The Home-To-School VPN (simply referred to as “VPN” after this) allows a single computer to connect to the school network from anywhere on the Internet, using an SSL encrypted tunnel.  To connect to the VPN, follow the directions on your organization’s appliance to install the required software and connect to the VPN.

Once you’re connected to the VPN, the workstation is given an IP address on the VPN subnet.  This subnet has private IP addresses, that are handed out by the VPN service on the appliance.  The VPN service also provides itself as a DNS server for the workstation to use to resolves names on the school/office network.  As long as everything on your network “eventually” default-routes through SecureSchool/ISBossBox/LibraryDoor, all of the devices on the LAN will be able to get to the VPN connected workstation, and vise-versa.  To prove basic functionality of the VPN, on the workstation connected to the VPN simply go to a command prompt and ping the LAN IP address of the SecureSchool/ISBossBox/LibraryDoor appliance.

Once you’ve proven basic connectivity, you can now try to connect to your servers, workstations, printers, etc.

A VPN is not a “magic” tool to connect to your domain/workstation/etc.  A VPN simply connects your remote computer to the LAN at the school/office.  Once you’re connected and have an IP address, it’s completely up to you what you want to do with it.  You can access file shares on your servers, connect to a printer, use Microsoft Remote Desktop to connect to servers or workstations, etc.  It’s just like you brought that computer to the LAN and plugged it in to the network there.  This also means that if the remote computer has a virus on it that scans for other vulnerable hosts, it will now scan the school/office LAN.  It’s important to make sure that the remote users know how to make sure their antivirus programs are kept up to date and working correctly.