How to use Mints@Home Citrix Remote Access gives Mints users the ability to access University Of Cambridge and MINTS resources from any computer, anywhere in the world,. The service requires a high-speed Internet connection. This guide will be available along with any changes implemented on the Clinical School Computing Service website should you need guidance in the future: http://www.cscs.medschl.cam.ac.uk/ If you require help or guidance please contact the Clinical School IT Support Service Helpdesk during working hours on 01223 336261 or email: Helpdesk@medschl.cam.ac.uk System requirements: Operating System: Windows 2000, Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, OS9, OSX10 Web Browser: Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or newer, Google Chrome, Opera, Safari, Firefox (Some of these browsers have issues please see the Need Help section of this document for more information and solutions if you are experiencing problems) Hardware: Broadband Internet Connection, 512 kbps or Higher Note: The Citrix Remote Access connection works best with a high-speed broadband network connection. Contents: How to access Mints@Home... 2 Accessing applications... 5 Remote desktop... 6 To access drives, files and devices (SFTP)... 9 Saving and printing your work... 11 Mac users... 11 Need help?... 12 How to access Mints@Home 1
Using your regular web browser, go to http://mints.medschl.cam.ac.uk (Please note this URL does not include www ) There are two portals that can be used to access Mints@Home. 2
http://mints.medschl.cam.ac.uk This should always be your primary logon point. http://mints2.medschl.cam.ac.uk This second logon point should only be used if the primary logon point is down or not responding. You will still be able to access your files and applications, but you will not be able to open your office applications via live edit. To do this you will need to load up your desktop You may want to bookmark these sites, or add them to your list of favorites. You ll need to return here each time you use Mints@Home in the future. You can also make shortcuts to these sites on your desktop for quick and easy access. At the logon page enter your MINTS username and password, and then click Log On. Important note: If this is the first time you are accessing Mints@Home, you will need to download and install the Citrix client software before proceeding. You should receive an alert regarding this automatically at this point in the process. 3
Please click the I agree with the Citrix license agreement box and then click install to install the Citrix online plugin. If you choose to skip this you will not be able to use most of the applications provided by Mints@Home. Mac users cannot download this plug-in, please see the Mac Helpdesk section of this document for more information. Accessing applications 4
Clicking on an application will open a server copy of this software. You do not need to have a copy of this software installed on your machine to make use of this application. More applications can be added, if you would like to request more please contact the helpdesk. After clicking on an application a small window will open, this will check you your internet speed and system specifications to offer you the best experience possible. At this point any network drives will be mapped, (Please don t close or cancel this task) You may need to wait a moment while the application launches. Mints@Home may also ask you to select the local drive access permissions. Choosing Full Access allows you to open and modify your files on your local machine, Read Access only allows files to be opened and read. (This option is setting file permissions on your machine and not on the MINTS server or network) Desktop 5
To access your Mints@Home desktop you need to click on the desktop tab located as shown by the arrow. Click on the TV screen to start your Mints@Home Desktop. Your version of office will be show above the TV screen. If you have a license for another version of office and would like to be changed please contact the helpdesk Desktop allows you to access a desktop with the usual applications you would find while using a MINTS machine. You will have access to all of your shares folders and files. You will also be able to access the entire Office 2003 suite including Outlook for accessing your email. This environment simulates your work machine allowing you to access any University resource or website from your remote location. 6
Logging on to the Desktop you will see a cut down version of the start bar as seen below Your available applications can be accessed from this menu. All your applications will load within the desktop session which means multiple windows will not open on your machine. All applications will load within the desktop window and changes will be saved within all published applications. On the desktop you will see your user name on one of the icons. (If you need support while connected to Mints@Home you can phone the helpdesk and let them know this information to help them identify what remote server you are accessing). This icon will take you to your remote drive connections as on the following page: 7
From here you can access your files and folders; you can also access your files and folders from within application such as the office suite. This is the preferred way of working with Mints@home, it gives the user the most familiar environment for working with documents, files and applications. Once you have finished using Mints@Home remote desktop please remember to log off the desktop, this will save any changes you have made to your Desktop and applications. 8
Remote Desktop & VNC Viewer Remote desktop and VNC Viewer allows you to access your MINTS workstation from your machine. Remote Desktop is recommended for PC s where VNC Viewer should be the default choice for Mac s. To access your MINTS machine you will need to know your machines IP Address or the Hostname. An example of this is below: (131.111.XXX.XXX) (MDPC47.medschl.cam.ac.uk) Your MINTS machine will need to be switched on for this connection to work and must be located on the University of Cambridge network. If you have any problems connecting to your machine, please see the Need Help section of this document. To access drives, files and devices (SFTP) To access your files (home and group drives) you will need to use the SFTP service from CSCS, to do this you need to install an SFTP program on your local machine. CSCS recommend that you use Filezilla The first step is to download the FileZilla FTP Client program which can be found using the following URL : http://www-csitss.medschl.cam.ac.uk/software/filezilla.exe Once your click the link to download the setup file, a window appears asking for the location where you wish to save the file. Once the download completes, navigate to your download location and run the program by either double-clicking or Right click the file and then click open. Select Standard and wait for the program to install. Once installed load up Filezilla To connect to an CSCS SFTP server, enter the address of sftp.medschl.cam.ac.uk into the host field of the Quickconnect bar. Enter the port 22 into the port field. Enter your MINTS username / password in the corresponding fields. Click on Quick connect or press Enter to connect to the server. After a successful connection attempt, a list of files and folders appears on the right side of the main window. The current folder is listed in the edit field on the top. You can change the current folder by double-clicking a folder or by entering the folder name into the edit field and pressing enter. You may also right-click the file and folder list and select Open from the context menu to change the current folder. You 9
will notice a folder called ".." displayed in all directories. This folder allows you to go up to the parent directory of the current folder. Navigating on your machine works almost like navigating on the server. There's only one addition: The folders on your machine are arranged in a tree for faster navigation. A tree is also available for the remote side, but it is hidden by default. The remote tree can be shown anytime by clicking on the remote tree icon in the toolbar. To change the current folder either on your machine or on the server, just select a tree item in the appropriate tree. You can upload or download a file by double-clicking on it. It will be added to the transfer queue and the transfer starts automatically. To transfer folders and/or multiple files, select them and right-click the selection. Then you can click on Upload/Download in the popup menu. You can also drag the files from one side and drop them on the other side. To add files to the queue so that they will be transferred later, select them and click Add to Queue from the popup menu. You may also drag the files directly into the queue. Click on the button on the toolbar to start the transfer. If you need help with SFTP please contact the CSCS helpdesk 10
Saving and printing your work Saving: You can save your work to any of the file shares or external devices that you are able to access during your Mints@Home session. Remember that the U:\ drive is your personal storage space on the MINTS file server, V:\ drive will be your group drive, if you have access to more drives these will be mapped automatically. All information on these drives is centrally backed up via MINTS. We encourage you to use these drives to store all your files and data. Printing: When printing while using remote access, make sure you have selected the name of your local printer; this will allow you to print your work from any of your file shares to your home or off site location. If you choose to Print a PO or report while in the University Finance System (UFS) your printed document will not go to your local printer for security reasons. Your document will be sent to you normal UFS printer on site. Please remember only do this if someone is on site to collect or action your printed document. Mac Users When using a Mac you will notice after entering your login id and password you are offered to download a xenapp plug-in. If you choose to download you will be give an.exe file, these files are not compatible with a Mac. You will need to download the Mac version this can be downloaded from the following links below: Please make sure you download and install the correct plug-in for you version of the Mac OS OSX : ftp://download2.citrix.com/files/en/products/macintosh/macica_osx.dmg.zip Power PC : OS : 10.2 only : ftp://download2.citrix.com/files/en/products/client/ica/current/macica_osx.dmg.zip Power PC : OS9 or Earlier : ftp://download2.citrix.com/files/en/products/mac620/macica_sea.hqx Once installed each time you access Mints@Home you will have to select skip download. This will bypass the.exe file and use the version installed on your local machine. When accessing an application you might be asked to open an.ica file. The first time you do this on an un-configured Mac you may have associate the.ica file type with the xenapp plug-in you have already download and installed. 11
Safari is the main supported internet browser for accessing Mints@Home while using a Mac, if you are experiencing problems with other browsers please switch to Safari. Opera has also been tested and works with out any known problems. Because of the way opera is downloaded and installed users might have problems depending on there version. If you have problems please try Safari before contacting the Helpdesk. Need Help? Mints@Home remote access offers you a greater degree of flexibility, convenience and efficiency. There are a number of factors that can cause problems accessing the Mints@Home service and most of these are out of our hands. You are relying on your home internet connection and home machine reliability. If you are having connection problems please make sure you can access other sites e.g. www.google.co.uk this will show if your home internet connection is working. Make sure you have installed the application when ask after logon. If you have not done so access to remote applications will not work. Internet Browsers There are a number of browsers that work with Mints@Home. The helpdesk recommend users to use Internet Explorer 6x or higher. If you are using IE8 (Internet Explorer 8) or IE9 you will need to change the application and file share home page into compatibility mode : At the top of the page you will see a small broken page icon, clicking on this icon will reformat the website for us with IE8, IE9 or Windows 7 12
Your Internet security setting on your local machine might be preventing you from opening applications or login in to Mints@Home. If you are having problems, load up Internet Explorer and go to tools and then options a new windows should appear as shown below: Make sure you have clicked on the Privacy tab to display the above screen. You need to make sure your machine setting is set to medium or lower. If your machine is set to high your machine will be unable to access Mints@Home. Some application might not display in the correct way if you are running more than one monitor, this happens if once monitor is set at a different resolution compared with the other monitor. If you have any problems please make sure to change the resolution or unplug one monitor while working via Mints@Home 13
If you have any questions, would like to request new features or need any more advice please contact the Clinical School Computing Service (CSCS) Helpdesk 8:30am 5:00pm Mon Fri 01223 336261 Helpdesk@medschl.cam.ac.uk This guide will be available on the homepage of the Clinical School Computing Service (CSCS) website should you need guidance in the future: http://cscs.medschl.cam.ac.uk/ Enjoy! 14