We utilize a VPN to allow employees to be able to work from home and still be able to access data located on the servers on the office. The VPN creates a secure tunnel from your home router to our Firewall. This tunnel allows data to securely pass back and forth between your laptop and the servers. Here is how to get connected to it.
1). In the bottom right corner of the screen there should be a chevron pointing up. You can click this to open up the system's tray.
2). When you open the system tray, there should be a grayed out globe icon. You can click that to open GlobalProtect, the app we use for the the VPN.
Note: Sometimes it takes a minute for the icon to pop up if you just rebooted or turned on your machine. If you give it a minute and it still doesn't show up, you can send in a ticket so our help desk can take a look at your computer.
3). GlobalProtect will ask for a portal address when logging in for the very first time. You can type in vpn.availa.bank and click the connect button. This will only have to be performed once so there is no need to remember the portal address.
4). If you have logged in before, GlobalProtect will just pop up with this window. You can hit the connect button.
5). GlobalProtect will then pop up with the sign in page. You can go ahead and type your credentials in as you would when signing into Windows, and then hit enter.
Note: For example, if my name is Tyler Durden, my username would be tdurden and my password would be my windows password.
6). After hitting the sign in button, you will get a screen like this. Remember to check your phone for a Duo notification verifying your log in.
7). On your phone you'll get a notification from the Duo app asking you to confirm you're logging in. Press "Approve".
8). After you approve the Duo notification, you should get this screen saying that you are connected. Once you click off of GlobalProtect, it will hide the window and you are ready to continue working.
