If you have any problems with connecting, let us know, and we can do a zoom session to guide you through the process.
General Use / Open Access Instructions
Some students may need to use a Bren desktop remotely for general studies or specialized group project needs. We have enabled remote desktop capability on some lab computers and have provided steps on how to connect to them below:
Basic Steps:
- You need to have installed the campus VPN "Pulse Secure VPN". [INSTRUCTIONS]
- You also need to have Microsoft remote desktop installed (on a Windows PC it is already installed, on a Mac you'll need to install it from the APP store).
- Important - if you have a MAC, you will need to allow Pulse Secure VPN in your security settings. you might have to click the "lock icon" and enter your mac password before you can enable Pulse Secure on your machine.
- You will next connect to the campus VPN before attempting to remote desktop to a GIS machine.
- You can verify that you are connected to the VPN by opening the UCSB IP Address Check tool [WEBPAGE LINK]. If you are connected properly it will say "On-campus address".
- We have a dynamically updating availability list of lab machines that shows availability and IP address. You will need the IP address information to be able to connect to a specific machine. If you are having problems connecting to the availability list webpage make sure you are first connected to the campus VPN.
- Navigate to the lab availability list webpage: [WEBPAGE LINK] (you must be connected to VPN for this webpage link to work)
There are a number of different groups of computers you can access, the most common group you will use is the "General Open Access" group.
Click on the group of computers you want to connect to.
- Locate a computer whose status is "Available", if it says "In Use" that means someone else is currently using it.
- For the computer you have selected click the connect link, this will pop up a window that will display the IP IP address, you will use this address to connect in the next step.
- Open Microsoft Remote Desktop and enter that IP address and login
- You must connect to the numerical IP address for the computer (in a format similar to 128.111.111.XXX) as the computer name WON'T WORK.
- put in ESM\brendesktop_account (generally your UCSBnetID) for the user name.
- If you see "another use is signed in, do you wish to continue anyways?" please cancel the remote desktop process and chose another GIS / lab computer that is not in use.
[PC REMOTE DESKTOP GENERAL GUIDE]
- When you are done, you must click Start -> Log Off , do not simply close the remote desktop window.
- To ensure machine availability for other users, if we see that you are idle on the lab machine you are connected to for more than 8 hours, we will log you off manually.
If you need to use a lab machine that has Adobe Creative Cloud installed
- Follow the general instructions that are listed above for connecting to a lab computer, however find an available computer in the "Adobe CC Open Access" group.
- When starting Adobe Creative Cloud for the first time you will be prompted to enter an AdobeID. You can enter any AdobeID for this step. If you don't have an AdobeID you can create one for free at adobe.com , follow the sign-in link in the upper right hand corner. There will be an option to create a new account.
- Due to limited availability please only use Adobe Creative Cloud equipped machines for tasks that require Creative Cloud software. General computer should be done instead on the other lab computers available in the instructions at the top of this page.