Forward All Calls to Voicemail:

Access your voicemail account and select option 4 for setup. Then option 1 for greetings and option 2 for alternate greeting. Record your out of office greeting and all calls will hear this greeting and be sent directly to voicemail. The next time you access voicemail it will ask if you want to keep or end your alternate greeting. How to forward your calls to your voicemail yourself.

Forward All Calls to a Different Number:

Select the Forward All button on your phone and enter the number you wish all calls forwarded to. All non-WSU numbers must begin with a 7 and long-distance numbers must begin with 71. The forwarded number will display to callers. Cannot be used on ACD line. Forwarded calls that are not answered by your personal phone will go to that phone’s voicemail.
You may choose not to forward your campus phone and instead request “voicemail-to-email”. This will send a .WAV file of each voicemail to your WSU Inbox. Simply send a request to crimsonservicedesk@wsu.edu to have this feature added to your line. How to forward calls to a different number yourself.

Requested Options Handled by Central ITS – These options must be requested by authorized individuals within your work area, as they required configuration change be done in the telephone system.

• ReachMe Anywhere (RMA): Allows calls to ring on office line and one additional line (mobile, home, etc.). Both numbers will ring when your main WSU primary number is dialed. If you are unsure about who has authority to request and approve these phone changes for you department please ask your supervisor. This is handled by Central ITS Click Here to access their site.
• Softphone: Software version of your office phone for use on a computer (PC or Mac). It requires a Jabber Client be installed and a speaker and microphone/headset microphone. Can be used with ACD but due to limitations requires separate number and agent account with additional ACD license. **WSU staff and faculty who are using Softphones to forward office calls to their computer must not use their WSU Softphone for calling 911 if working remote. The softphone is tied to the desk phone and will direct 911 to the office location, not where the actual user is. If you are unsure about who has authority to request and approve these phone changes for you department please ask your supervisor. This is handled by Central ITS Click Here to access their site.
• Single In-Box Messaging (SIM): Receive voicemail as email via email. Voice messages are immediately replicated to the user’s Exchange mailbox as an audio attachment. This feature requires you to have a WSU Office 365 E-Mail Account.
  Set up fees will be waived until further notice. If you are unsure about who has authority to request and approve these phone changes for you department please ask your supervisor. This is handled by Central ITS Click Here to access their site.

Please note the items above are all recommendations to assist with remote work. Supervisors may require or request their teams to take some of these actions.

Zoom Video Conferencing

You may be starting to miss seeing your co-workers after being at home with your family full time. Zoom is great for meeting and keeping up with your coworkers while we continue to practice social distancing. F&A employees can add a zoom meeting to their outlook meeting invite by clicking the zoom button at the top of outlook. If you need a quick ad-hoc meeting, open the zoom application and start a new meeting. Need to download Zoom on a personal device? Click Here

New to Zoom and video conferencing? To learn more about how to use zoom Click Here.

Microsoft Teams

Teams is the replacement for Skype. Many users are used to quickly checking in by using the instant messaging function of Teams. Consider using teams when you have those moments where you would normally stop by someones desk for a quick question or check in. Teams also allows for video meetings and calls. That being said Zoom seems to have better quality from our personal experience. There are also some additional features that may lead you to use Zoom for video meeting besides call quality. Need to download teams on a personal device? Click Here.

• One-time setup for recurring meetings
• Up to 300 invitees per single meeting
• Screen sharing
• Joining a meeting via phone
• Virtual backgrounds

***Please note that Zoom and Teams are safe to use without the VPN. In fact you will be helping your peers by not using the VPN while on Zoom or Teams***

When to use GlobalProtect VPN

Many users erroneously assume that if they are using a VPN client, these risks are mitigated because they are “encrypted”. THAT IS NOT TRUE.
The risks outlined for BYOD apply even when you are using a VPN, because a VPN is designed to tunnel the traffic from one point to another so that no one can intercept the traffic in between the sender and receiver. A VPN does not evaluate, verify, validate, inspect, etc. the status of the BYOD device that is running the VPN software, and does not require anti-virus, malware, patching or firewall protection.
That means, the VPN session can allow viruses, trojans, malware, etc. back into WSU campus systems and resources via the VPN from a compromised device.
The use of WSU VPN services means that all usage can be seen by central ITS monitoring tools.
This is important to note because many staff have expressed privacy concerns if they are to use their personal device for work, and are worried about possible repercussions should they mix business and pleasure using their own devices. When a VPN session is active, all network traffic on that device is being sent to the WSU VPN servers. If you are connected to a VPN session and finish your work and close out all of your screens, and you forgot and left the VPN session running; when you come back later and surf the web for your favorite video game portal and start gaming with your best friend, all of the gaming traffic would be sent to the VPN server and logged. Perhaps more importantly, all of that gaming traffic would increase the use of limited bandwidth allocated for the VPN concentrator, and would reduce the resources available for others to conduct legitimate work.

Where to Download GlobalProtect

Select the appropriate installer from the list below:

Windows 64 bit installer (This is the one for the majority of people)
Windows 32 bit installer (Very few people will need the 32 bit installer, if the 64 bit does not work try this one.) 

Mac installer for all Mac users 

How to Install and Use

I have the installer but I am not sure what to do now. Have no fear the folks at central IT have provided some wonderful documentation linked below.

Windows VPN Installers and Guide
Mac Installer and Guide

The following items are a variation of the standards that WSU Central ITS is requiring of their own employees when conducting work remotely. In addition, ITS is having their staff sign telework agreements as well as an additional document attesting that the following criteria are in place.

• The user account in use on the personal device should NOT be a shared account that is accessible by others.
• The user account in use on the personal device should NOT have local administrator privileges.
• The operating system in use and application software installed should be up-to-date and currently supported.
• All security patches should be up to date. Software should be set to automatically update.
• Anti-virus software should be installed with updated software and virus definitions. Software should be set to automatically update.
• Host-based firewalls should be enabled.
• DO NOT store or save ANY WSU files on your personal device. Save them to the network or your one-drive.
• Must use the WSU-provided VPN to facilitate connectivity to WSU internal resources.
• Must use secure gateway and/or virtual machine to access sensitive data or critical systems.
• Contact FAIS by sending an email to fais@wsu.edu if any of the previous criteria cannot be met or if you have questions.

To ensure that your device is ready for BYOD use please take the steps seen in the following guides for Windows or Mac:

Windows Guide For Validating Security
Mac Guide For Validating Security

F&A Remote Access Using F&A Assigned Devices.

WSU-assigned devices have updated anti-virus, malware, client updates and firewall configurations all performed remotely and centrally by the F&A technology staff to ensure a certain level of security. In these COVID-19 conditions, there is not an adequate supply of devices to meet the demand for these requests. Consequently, the use of personal devices must be considered as a means to provide remote access for essential personnel.

F&A Remote Access Using Personal Devices.

Accessing WSU resources remotely from a personal device occurs daily with staff using their phones and tablets to check their email. However, since that type of data is considered a relatively low risk of exposure, there is not excessive concern if the device is not managed. However, there remains the challenges of potential risks associated with allowing unmanaged personal devices into the portfolio and access the resources of WSU.

Remote Connection To Desktop, The FAIS Gateway

After using the VPN to access WSU’s network. You need to use FAIS’s Remote Gateway which can be found at REMOTE.FAIS.WSU.EDU in order to access your desktop computer.

Remote Desktop How To For Windows

Remote Desktop How To For Mac

Accessing your Desktop

To access your desktop remotely you will need to have your desktop computer name and GlobalProtect VPN connected. Please reach out to FAIS if you need assistance finding your computer name.

File Shares

File shares can be accessed only while signed into the GlobalProtect VPN. If you are using a laptop to remotely connect to your desktop you will only see your file shares in your remote session and not on your laptop’s file explorer.

Review Sensitive Data

If you are going to be accessing sensitive data for your work please be sure to use a Remote Gateway and VPN to access the information.

Use of Remote Gateway

The FAIS remote gateway can be accessed at REMOTE.FAIS.WSU.EDU . Please only use the FAIS Remote Gateway when you are using the VPN. The remote gateway will be the way that you access your desktop.

How to set up your remote connection

Contact FAIS by sending an email to fais@wsu.edu if you have any questions.

You are welcome to call us at 509-335-FAIS(3247). Note that email is the best way for us to receive and prioritize your request since a ticket is automatically created and routed to every FAIS team member.

Q1: What is VPN software and how does it protect me?

VPN software allows a user to log in to a service and be given an “encrypted session” between the user and the systems that VPN service is tied to. For WSU, that means we use an installed software package called Global Protect by Palo Alto. When turned on, the VPN ensures there is no way for someone to intercept traffic in between the user and the systems they are using, which is the most typical method of attack. VPN services are very good at stopping those types of attacks. While important, VPN services are not effective in protecting either side of the communications from each other in terms of viruses, trojans, ransomware, etc.

Q2: Why is everything is slower than normal when I try to access resources?

Many residential networks, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), and other sites appear to be struggling under the increased demands placed upon them by the increase in remote work. Therefore, many of the performance issues we have been seeing are not with WSU systems but rather the ISP’s and other area providers.

Q3: Things were slow for a while this morning but then it got better at lunch. It seems to have gone slow again. Why is the performance being so back and forth?

Most home networks are used by others in the house to watch movies, play games online, social media, etc. Please keep in mind that with additional users in the home accessing through the same internet provider, things are likely to slow down dramatically.

Q4: Do I have to use VPN to access email if that is all I am doing?

We are encouraging users NOT to turn on their VPN session unless the resource they are trying to reach requires it. If employees do not need to be connected to the VPN tunnel, then by disconnecting, they can shorten their internet routes, and possibly reduce overall internet congestion and overall performance on their computer.

Q5: Can I connect my home printer or home scanner to my laptop or tablet for work purposes?

Yes. Please send an email to fais@wsu.edu if you need assistance.

Q6: GlobalProtect is not connecting. What do I do?

Please ensure that you are accessing global protect properly.
Windows VPN Installers and Guide
Mac Installer and Guide

Check in with your peers to see if they are having similar issues. If they are send an email to FAIS. We prefer to have over communication rather than the assumption that someone else has probably let us know.
Please note that FAIS does not own the GlobablProtect VPN connection, by letting us know you are helping us to diagnose the issue with Central IT.

Q7: I cannot get to my remote machine. What do I do?

Please ensure that you are following the remote connection steps properly.

Remote Desktop How To For Windows

Remote Desktop How To For Mac

If you are having issues please check in with a supervisor or peer to see if they are able to connect. After discussing with a supervisor or peer please reach out to FAIS and let us know if multiple users are unable to connect or if it is just you having issues connecting.

Q8: I have a computer setup at home and would like to use that for work but was assigned a laptop to remote in. What do I need to do to use my home computer?

If you were assigned a WSU resource to access your work computer remotely, it was given to you since you access sensitive data. In turn, you need to use that device to remotely access and work with any sensitive data that you work with. You may consider using BYOD after validating its secure for low risk tasks such as zoom, email, online training, and web browser activities such as office 365 online. However, this access is limited in scope compared to remotely connecting to your WSU computer with your assign laptop.

Q9: Zoom is not playing audio or hearing me while I am signed into my computer remotely. How do I make that work?

The quickest solution to no audio or no microphone is to use a cellphone or landline to call into your zoom meeting. This is an extra step but will get you running quickly.

Alternatively consider running zoom from your laptop and not remote desktop session. That should fix the majority of audio and microphone related issues. The only down side to this option is trying to share documents from your remote desktop session on zoom may not be possible.