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Help : Off-Campus Access
Using EZproxy and VPN
EZproxy
Current students, faculty, and staff at WFU are eligible to use EZproxy for off-campus access to databases. You will be prompted automatically for your WFU username and password.
EZproxy works by detecting a special prefix to the URL. At WFU, this prefix is http://ezproxy.wfu.edu:3000/login?url=. The full URL for JSTOR, for example, can be seen in your browser's status bar when the link is hovered. This prefix works for both database entry pages (the JSTOR example) and for article-specific links (such as this article from Project MUSE).
If you create content for off-campus students (e.g. Blackboard courses), please include the EZproxy prefix on any links to library databases or e-journals. If you receive Table of Contents alerts via e-mail or RSS (e.g. from ScienceDirect), you must add the prefix to each link before it will work off campus. Alternatively, you can use VPN.
Back to topVPN (Virtual Private Network)
VPN is an alternative to EZproxy. In addition to security benefits, VPN gives you an on-campus address which will authenticate you to our databases.
VPN, not EZproxy, must be used in the following circumstances:
- To use any networked CD-ROM database
- To use SciFinder Scholar
- To use EndNoteWeb
- To connect from a WFU study abroad house.
Information Systems supports and provides instructions for VPN.
Troubleshooting
Are you a WFU alum?
Alumni may not use electronic resources while off campus. This is a condition that our vendors place on us in our contracts when we buy databases from them. In most cases, alumni and the public are welcome to use our databases when they are in the library.
Are you studying abroad in a WFU house?
Students in WFU houses in Venice, Vienna, and London must use VPN instead of EZproxy. You must explicitly launch VPN from your Start menu.
Are you trying to connect from your place of work?
Please note that our databases are for educational, non-commercial use only.
If you are connecting to WFU databases from a corporation, hospital campus, or government office, there may be a firewall in place which prevents you from using EZproxy. Corporate sites often employ firewalls and may be highly restrictive in what their employees can access. If a corporate firewall prevents access, users will not be able to access EZproxy. Most Internet Service Providers do not limit the areas their users can access on the Internet, so home users do not tend to encounter problems with firewalls.
Do you use the university modem pool?
The modem pool cannot be used with either VPN or EZproxy. You can access databases since you will have a WFU IP address, but you cannot access the CDs or SciFinder.
If EZproxy is malfunctioning:
Reynolda campus undergraduates and students in the Divinity School or the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences should email ZSR, IM zsrlibrary, or call (336) 758-5475.
MBA students should call (336) 758-4126.
Law students should call (336) 758-4300.
Hawthorne campus users should contact Molly Barnett (336) 716-2303 or IM wfusmrefdesk. Instructions.
Back to topWhy are EZproxy and VPN needed?
Many expensive subscription web-based services (such as databases and electronic journals) are restricted to current Wake Forest students, faculty, and staff. EZproxy and VPN are two ways to notify a subscription database that you are a legitimate Wake Forest user when you are off campus.
See WhatIs.com for a technical explanation of how proxies and virtual private networks work.
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