Have you been granted VPN rights, but now you don’t know the first thing to do? Here is your next course of action.
(Note: This presumes you’ll be using a county laptop to connect to the network, but won’t need to connect to a desktop in your office from that laptop.)
Set up Pulse Secure
- Find and double-click MCG Software Center on your desktop. (This is only on county computers and you will not find this on your home computer.)
- Find and click to install Pulse Secure Client from the list. Go through the installation.
- Run Pulse Secure. We now need to establish a connection (something you’ll do only once, as you will just use that saved connection after this point). The screen should show an empty list of connections and we’ll add one.
- Click the plus (+) button in the Pulse Secure window to add a connection.
- Add the necessary info:
- Type: (use the default Policy Secure or Pulse Secure).
- Name: Call this whatever you would like. I recommend MCG or VPN.
- Server URL: https://secure.montgomerycountymd.gov (unless DTS told you your server is secure2, in which case it would be secure2.montgomerycountymd.gov)
- Click the Add button.
Connect to the VPN
- Launch Pulse Secure (if you have not already).
- Find the saved item for the county VPN and click the Connect button.
- Input your county single sign-on username and password (i.e., what you use to log into Windows in the office) when prompted and click the Connect button.
- Wait for the connection to be made successfully. You will know it was successful if you see the green check mark next to the name of the saved connection.
Disconnect from the VPN
- Click the Disconnect button in the Pulse window when you are finished with county servers and want to disconnect.
