Keep Working

This site is designed to assist and prepare you for working remotely from home from an IT perspective. The information below lists some of the core functionalities that you may want to consider or use when working remotely.

TXWES’s preference is to have employees to take their designated office laptop or desktop home for remote use if approved. We will have more information regarding which services each employee needs in the upcoming days.

You may need to modify or add to your existing office equipment to accommodate the unique circumstances of your remote work environment. Your department may need to purchase a headset or USB web camera with microphone if you need one for phone calls and web conferencing if your laptop or monitor does not have one. We have identified a few of them here that you may want to consider and process through your department and the Purchasing Office.

Many key applications and document repositories are completely network-accessible from your TXWES-issued laptop, computer or tablet, as long as you know the correct URL to access the resource.

Note: When working remotely, you may need to start a VPN session to access certain restricted applications like Colleague, SQL reports and network files share drives.

VPN Use, Installation and Best Practices

The Office of Information Technology strongly recommends that personal devices are not used with the VPN to access our network servers whenever possible to best ensure the integrity and security of our servers and data. Due to a limited amount of licenses and other qualifying criteria, not all TXWES staff can have access to our network using VPN. If you think you need access, contact your department director or manager to request access for you.

• More information and assistance for VPN installation and use for Windows computers can be found here: Installing the VPN Client on Your MS Windows Computer
• More information and assistance for VPN installation and use for Apple computers can be found here: Installing VPN Application on Your Apple Computer

Other best practices include:

• Do not store data on a local computer or external drive.
• Save all work to OneDrive or your departmental network file share drive.
• Do not use public access computers such as in a public library or hotel business center.
• Always keep your computer up to date and with an anti-virus application active. Remove any expired anti-virus programs that may prevent others from being active.

Forwarding Calls From Your Phone

• Press the “Forward All” softkey.
• Then enter the call forward target phone number exactly as you would dial it from your phone.
• To verify that your calls are forwarded, look for the “Forward All” icon in the line label, and the forwarding information in the header.

**If you are off-campus and need your phone forwarded, please submit a Help Desk ticket and be sure to include your TXWES extension and the full phone number that you would like your calls forwarded to.

Note: You can only request to forward your own phone extension.

Accessing Your Voicemail

From inside the school (Internal) from your Desk.

• Press the Messages or Envelope icon on your Desk phone.
• Enter your PIN and follow the instructions given by the system.
• All voicemails left in your inbox will be forwarded to your TXWES email address.

From outside the school (External)

• Dial your full desk phone number (817) XXX-XXXX
• Wait until the voicemail starts and press (*)
• The system will ask you for your ID (ID is your 4 Digit Ext.)
• When prompted, enter your PIN and follow the instructions given by the system.
• All voicemail left in your inbox will be forwarded to your TXWES email address

Deleting Your Voicemails:

• Login to your voicemail box via PIN using the methods listed above for "accessing your voicemail" and follow the prompts:
  • From the main menu
  • Press 3 to review old messages
  • Press 1 for saved messages
  • Press 3 to delete messages. 

**If you do not have a PIN or have forgotten your PIN, please submit a Help Desk ticket.

Office 365 is a solution that delivers the capabilities of email as a cloud-based service. By utilizing this system, the Office of Information Technology will now be able to offer additional services such as 1 terabyte of storage in OneDrive, as well as the Office suite on a web-based platform. Faculty will now also be able to share documents and files within Office 365 with the students through OneDrive. In addition, Office 365 is available for download on up to 5 personal devices through Office 365. Access more information here.

You can access your TXWES email from anywhere on any computer connected to the internet via Office 365. To login to your Office 365 account, use your TXWES email address and Ramlink password to login to Office 365 at mymail.txwes.edu.

• In the "Email or phone" field, type in your full email address.
• In the "Password" field, enter your Texas Wesleyan password.
• This is a "School or work account".

The university has adopted Microsoft Teams as it’s communication tool while working remotely and on campus. Microsoft aims to keep teams connected while they work apart by making Microsoft Teams available to as many people as possible. Teams allows you to chat, meet, call and collaborate all in one place.

Download Microsoft Teams on any device. Connect on Teams anywhere with Windows, Mac, iOS and Android devices, or bring remote participants into meeting spaces of all sizes with Teams.

There are many free online training resources available for you to access through the internet and the Eunice & James L. West Library website. These resources have many intuitive video training programs that help you get familiar and learn the features and functionality of many programs that you use and may want to learn to use better.

Many colleges and universities across the country have found success in using Hoonuit to easily integrate online training and tutoring into course pages (LMS), blogs or websites, thus allowing for more instructional time. It is also great for just learning a new application on your own! Click here to visit the Hoonuit website (requires your Ramlink username and password).

Some application training that you may find helpful:

• Office 365
• OneDrive
• Microsoft Teams

In response to COVID-19 developments, some internet providers are offering free or reduced cost services to low-income families and households with students. More information can be found below on this, but sure careful to read all of the details of the offer.

Find Out More

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) warns individuals to remain vigilant for scams related to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Cyber actors may send emails with malicious attachments or links to fraudulent websites to trick victims into revealing sensitive information or donating to fraudulent charities or causes.

Exercise caution in handling any email with a COVID-19-related subject line, attachment, or hyperlink, and be wary of social media pleas, texts, or calls related to COVID-19.

Read More

Communications platforms guidance for individuals and organizations

We are aware of malicious cyber actors hijacking online meetings that are not secured with passwords or that use unpatched software.

Tips for defending against online meeting hijacking

• Do not make meetings public. Instead, require a meeting password or use the waiting room feature and control the admittance of guests.
• Do not share a link to a meeting on an unrestricted publicly available social media post. Provide the link directly to specific people.
• Manage screensharing options. Change screensharing to “Host Only.”
• Ensure you are are using the updated version of remote access/meeting applications.

Browse the IT Services Knowledge Base and the IT Get Help web page to find helpful articles on a range of topics.

In order to best serve all our RAMily while we are all working from home; if you need IT support for an issue related to telecommuting, remote work or any issue, submit a Help Desk ticket and leave the limited phone lines available for urgent matters affecting business processes and assisting our students.