Off Campus Access to Electronic Resources
EZProxy 
Virtual Private Network
The license agreements for most of the Library's electronic resources allow remote (off campus) access only to members of the Northwestern community; that is, primarily to currently enrolled Northwestern University students, faculty and staff. This means that if you wish to use these resources when you are away from campus, you must authenticate on the campus network, NUnet, using your Northwestern NetID and password.
The methods of remote-access are listed below in order of reliability and ease of use.
- Info on EZproxy,
Login
to EZproxy system - Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection
EZProxy 
The EZProxy system allows authorized users to access
restricted resources without installing addtiional software
or configuration your web browser. You will be prompted for your
Northwestern NetID when you login
to the EZproxy system.
Some electronic resources are restricted to certain groups within
the University community while others are available to everyone.
Once you have been validated by this system, a "cookie" is
sent to your browser as an ongoing indication of your authorization
to access these databases. It will only need to be set once during
login for each session.
Login
to
EZProxy system
Report problems with the EZProxy system 
via
e-mail (using your default email
application),
filling out this 
Online
Form, or by calling the Reference Desk at 847-491-7656.
Virtual Private Network
Use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) client to connect to the University's VPN server. The VPN makes your network traffic appear to originate from on campus. This is the most reliable method for remote authentication and is your best choice if you have a broadband Internet connection, such as through a cable modem or direct subscriber line (DSL).
The Mac OS 10.2 (Jaguar), Windows XP, Windows 2000 Professional and Windows Me operating systems all have built-in VPN clients. For other operating systems, you will need to download a VPN client from the Northwestern University Information Technology web site. For more information about supported operating systems and help downloading, installing and configuring a VPN client, please go to http://www.it.northwestern.edu/offcampus/vpn/.
- Certain electronic resources may require additional authentication through EZProxy, even if you are already connected via VPN.
- You may not be able to use VPN if you are using a computer where you can not install or configure local software, such as on a corporate network.
- You may also have difficulty if the network that your computer is on is behind an existing firewall (e.g.: corporate networks; other educational institutions; etc.) that prohibits VPN traffic. If this is the case, you may be able to authenticate for access to Library electronic resources using one of the other methods listed below. Check with your network's system administrator for more information.
