Accessing Work Files from Home

There are two ways you can access your work from home, using a VPN on your staff laptop, or the Foldr website.

Foldr Website

The first method is using the Foldr website, this is something you don't install, but instead browse to using the Google Chrome browser.

Using Foldr, you can access the staff network drives quickly and easily anywhere in the world on any device.

You just need your laptop username and password to login and you're good to go. 

Gable Hall School - https://foldr.gablehall.com

Hassenbrook Academy - https://foldr.hassenbrook.org.uk 

Corringham Primary School - https://foldr.corringhamprimary.com 

In addition to this, you can also install the Foldr app to your iPhone, iPad and Android devices, and quickly access and edit files.

VPN Installation Steps

1. Download the latest Smoothwall VPN package from here.

2. Open the .zip file in your Downloads folder.

3. Extract the .zip file to your computer. We usually extract it to C:\VPN.

4. You'll be shown a new window showing the extracted files, from there, double-click the file SmoothWall-SSL-OpenVPN-client.exe.

5. Go through and install the Smoothwall OpenVPN client to your laptop.

6. Go to the Start Menu and open the Smoothwall VPN client.

7. A shield icon will appear in the system tray near the clock, on the bottom-right hand corner of your screen (you might need to press an arrow to expand the system tray.)

8. Double click the shield icon, the Smoothwall VPN client will appear in the centre of the screen.

9. Press the import button, another window will appear, under Import Existing Configuration - Path to the *.ovpn file, and then browse to C:\VPN.

10. Select the file named Gable Hall School 2021.ovpn, or Hassenbrook Academy 2021.ovpn.

11. The configuration file has been installed, you will be able to connect to the VPN now.

12. You should see the profile named either Gable Hall School 2021 or Hassenbrook Academy 2021, press the Connect button next to it.

13. You'll be prompted for your username and password, use the login details you use for your staff laptop/computer.

14. The VPN client will take a few seconds to connect you, it will show green with a Connection Established message.

15. Congratulations! You're good to go! Open up File Explorer and you can then open up any of the staff network drives (such as your H: drive), just as if you are at work.

Alternatively, please see the video below (coming soon), where all of these steps are taken through in realtime.