Connecting to VPN using Sonicwall Mobile Connect

Using Sonicwall mobile connect is a great way to work remotely. While connecting via any VPN can seem tricky at first, this handy guide can help walk you through the connection process.

March 17, 2020
Valiant Technology
2 min

Working from home and not sure how to connect to your work VPN? While the actual names and IPs will vary from site to site, this guide can help walk you through the basic steps using Sonicwall Mobile Connect. VPNs enable you to work from home while retaining access to your office’s onsite file servers.

Prerequisites

Your company should have already set up VPN access and acquired the necessary licensing.
You must have Sonicwall Mobile Connect installed on your machine
- https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sonicwall-mobile-connect/id822514576?mt=12
You must have your company’s VPN configuration files installed. If this was not set up prior, contact your IT team.

Step by Step VPN guide

Once you are outside of the office, open the application called Sonicwall Mobile Connect. It lives in Applications on your Mac.

Once open, click the drop down arrow to view all available connections.

You may see a number of available connections if your company has multiple locations and/or pathways for higher volumes of remote workers. If you are not sure which to choose, contact your IT team for more information.

Once you’ve selected the connection that suits your needs, click the connect button.

You will now be greeted with a Username/Password prompt. This is asking for your server credentials, which should also match your work computer login. Enter them, and select Login.

If successful, you will now see the application connected.

Click the disconnect button when you are ready to end your session.

Notes and tips for using VPN

The “speed” of the VPN is entirely dependent on your home internet connection.
You will not have the same speed or responsiveness as when you are in the office, things will be noticeably slower.
You must NOT work directly on the server.
- If you need to work on a file that lives on the server, you must copy/paste it to your local computer
- After making changes to said file, save it again on your local computer
- Once saved, copy/paste it back up to the server
There is no need to be connected by VPN for the whole workday. In fact, if most of your office is working remotely, staying connected will cause speeds for everyone to slow painfully. Get the files you need and disconnect until its time to upload or you need more files.
Make sure you install all security updates on your computer and have active anti-virus to protect your work network.

Working remotely can be incredibly convenient once you get into the swing of things. For more content on remote work check out our knowledge base and our blog, The Valiant Way.