You may never have heard of PASS space or UDrive, but if you’ve used any public computers on campus, you’ve used one of them. Both PASS space and UDrive are servers on which your personal files are stored with lab computers and podium computers.
You can access those files from other computers, like faculty laptops and personal computers at home. How?
If you’re connecting from a computer on campus (wired or wireless), please skip this step. Computers that are NOT on campus must use the VPN tool first. You can download the tool here (faculty laptops already have it installed). You’ll have to log in to download the software. Once you’ve installed it, you must use it each time you connect to PASS or UDrive from off campus. Select the “ISP to PSU” connection when you launch the VPN software.
Faculty computers and staff computers that our department has disbursed all have a little program installed called “Map Pass and Udrive.” If you click on your Windows button in the bottom left-hand corner of your desktop, then select “All Programs,” you should see it listed near the top. It has a little smiley face on a folder as an icon.
If you’re using your personal Windows computer, you can get the Map PASS and UDrive software here. If you’re using your personal MacIntosh computer, you can download it here. Install it, and you’ll have the same shortcut with the smiley face.
The following image is what the software looks like when you launch it. Enter your Penn State Access account, your password, then click connect. You only need to connect to your user folders – not the root folders.
Congratulations! You should now have easy access to the folders where your files are stored on public computers! If you’re not sure which to use, don’t hesitate to give us a call (717-749-6300) or send us a quick message to the Help Desk (helpdesk@ma.psu.edu). We’d love to assist you in your accessing everything that you need, no matter where you are.
