Tips for Telecommuting

Various technologies can make working from home a great deal easier. Below is some information that you will find useful should you find yourself doing your job remotely.

Handling Your Calls From Home

When working at home, you can forward your work phone directly to a home phone or cell phone.

Forwarding your calls using your office desk phone

  1. To forward calls to another number while at your desk phone, press the Forward All or Fwd All soft key on your desk phone display.
  2. Enter the phone number (with leading 8+1) you would like your phone to forward calls to.
  3. To revert your calls back to your desk phone, press the Forward Off or Fwd Off soft key on your desk phone display.

Forwarding your calls using a computer from home

  1. To use a computer to forward your office calls, launch Firefox or Safari and go to https://my.voip.psu.edu/ucmuser/main#callforwarding.
  2. Click the “Forward all calls to” checkbox.
  3. Enter the phone number (with leading 8+1) you would like your phone to forward calls to.
  4. Click Save.
  5.  To revert your calls back to your desk phone, go to the same web page, un-check the “Forward all calls to” checkbox, and then click Save.

Listening to your office voicemail at home

  1. To check if you have voicemail and to listen to it, call 570-675-9288.
  2. You’ll be asked for your ID, which is your 11-digit phone number (ex: 1-570-675-9XXX).
  3. Enter your PIN when prompted to do so, and then follow the voice instructions.

Listening to your voicemail on your home computer

  1. To check if you have voicemail and to listen to it, visit https://my.voip.psu.edu.
  2. Click on the Inbox link at the very top.
  3. Click on the Play link to play your voicemail.

Using Your Work Computer From Home

If you have a computer at home, you can log into your work computer remotely. When doing this, it seems like your work computer is right there at home with you. You have access to all your applications, files, connections, etc.

For security purposes, your office computer can only be logged into from computers that are connected directly to the Penn State network. Devices that are connected to the Internet via a home network or cellular service are blocked from remotely logging in because of the risk of hackers breaking into Penn State systems.

The way to get around this is to use something on your home computer called a Virtual Private Network, or VPN. The VPN software prompts for your Penn State Access ID and password, and then creates a secure private connection from your device to the Penn State network. Once the secure connection has been made, remote desktop software lets you log into your office computer and work on it remotely.

How to install and use VPN and Remote Desktop software

Holding Remote Meetings Using Zoom