VPN - What is it?

VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. It's basically a way to connect to a private network (such as our corporate network) through a public one (the internet).

Corporate networks typically will have a small number of resources that can be accessed from anywhere (like the company's public website) while a majority of resources can only be accessed from within the corporate network (file servers, applications, etc). Using a VPN allows you to create a secure, encrypted tunnel between your computer and the corporate network, allowing you to access corporate resources that you'd otherwise only be able to access while in a regional office.

All Christman-owned machines support connection to our client VPN system. Every time you start a fresh login session on a Christman computer, you'll be greeted with this message:


If you did NOT see this message when logging in, you're logging into an already-running session on your computer, and should log out/reboot and then log back in with these instructions if you need your on-premises network drives.

This is meant to remind users that if they want their network drives mapped and they're starting their login session outside of a regional office, they need to login a specific way (see our I Lost My Drives! article in the Christman Help Center for more information on that).


What is the VPN needed for?

The VPN is needed for the following:

  • Access to Viewpoint (when using the locally installed Viewpoint client).
  • Access to on-premises (hosted in a regional office) network file shares (things like the S: and P: drives, estimating, marketing, etc).
  • Access to software that uses on-premises databases (Viewpoint, P6, WinEst, etc) if that software is locally installed on your computer.
  • Access to information/applications that are still hosted at our old intranet site (cuconnect.us).

What is the VPN NOT needed for?

  • General internet access.
  • Access to email/Outlook.
  • Access to Teams/SharePoint data (either within their respective apps, or via the T: and X: drives).
  • OneDrive files.
  • Remote Applications (such as remote Viewpoint or WinEst).
  • Other third-party online applications (Workday, Autodesk, Modelogix, etc).

I can't connect to the VPN!

Outside of technical issues with your computer, there are a few common reasons users are unable to connect to the VPN:

  • New mobile device: Multi-factor authentication applications like Microsoft Authenticator are tied to the physical device when you pair them with your account. If you have recently gotten a new phone and moved your data to it, it will not move the MFA key. You can follow these instructions to remove the authenticator from your account and re-add it with your new device or put in a helpdesk ticket for assistance.

    Christman Help Center - How to get Microsoft Authenticator working on a new device

    This is the most common reason we see for VPN connectivity issues.

  • Country restrictions: Users accessing from another country may be unable to connect to the VPN. If you're traveling outside the US and need to access the VPN, please email us at help@christmanco.com and let us know (you can do this from your personal account if needed).
  • VPN connections not allowed on network: This can sometimes happen when using a guest Wi-Fi network, or some owner-provided internet solutions. Our suggestion is to try to enable the hotspot feature on your mobile device (if you have one) or try to connect from home and see if you can connect to the VPN through that connection. If you can, then it's a network restriction and you'd need to contact the administrators of that network to see about allowing VPN connectivity.