CCAM Computational Facility
Remote Access
Besides http, afp, and ftp access to files stored on the CAM file servers, the CCAM Computational Facility offers two specialized services for access to UCHC computer resources, VPN and Remote Desktop Control. In addition, a public Dropbox is available for CAM, Education, and UCHC account users.
| VPN Connection to the UCHC LAN | Remote Control of Desktop PC's |
| FTP and SMB Access | CCAM Dropbox |
VPN Connection to the UCHC LAN
To use our VPN service:
- you must have a CAM domain account and you must request your account to be enabled for VPN
- you must create a new network connection on your remote computer, configured to use the VPN protocol; the VPN server name is vpn1.vcell.uchc.edu; when connecting, you must use your domain account for authentication
- For more detailed instructions,please click Windows or MAC(up to 10.4) or MAC (10.5 - 10.6)
For help in configuring the VPN network connection, please contact us.
What is VPN?
VPN stands for 'Virtual Private Network' and it is a secure, encrypted, protocol that connects a remote computer from anywhere in the world to an institutional network via the Internet, as through a 'shielded tunnel'. When connected via VPN, the remote computer behaves and appears as if it would be physically present on the institutional network. There are two obvious advantages of such a VPN connection to the UCHC LAN:
- the remote computer can access any UCHC computer directly, including computers that are behind the UCHC firewall (most regular UCHC office and lab computers fall in this category), through regular network sharing mechanisms (e.g. Windows networking and Appletalk)
- the remote computer can access various sites on the Internet that are restricted to UCHC computers (for example websites of scientific journals to which the UCHC library subscribes)
The VPN service provided by our facility is free of charge and does not require a special client software to be installed. It requires the built-in VPN client networking options present in Windows 2000 or later and in MacOS X. If you are using a different OS on the remote computer that you wish to connect via VPN, please contact the Health Center's IT department for subscribing to their paid VPN service.

