How to access UpToDate from home (for McMaster Students)
This article is for all McMaster students (especially my fellow residents) who want to save some money. A lot of us like using UpToDate, a commercial service that provides, well, up to date information to aid in clinical decision making. Controversy about commercial interests having undue influence, etc, etc, aside, it is a very useful quick reference. Unfortunately, despite discounts for physicians-in-training, it remains somewhat expensive.
Luckily, McMaster University provides access to it for all students and faculty on-campus and at the hospitals. But how to get access to this resource — which you have already paid for through tuition fees and hard work — at home? It’s easy — use McMaster’s VPN. As a bonus, you’ll also be able to connect to all the subscribed e-journals and so on without going through the library’s cumbersome login.
UPDATE: If you have a HHS account, you can also access UpToDate via Citrix.
UPDATE 2: As of Aug 15, 2009, the VPN method no longer works. You can use LibAccess for most Library resources (but not UpToDate). Your best bet is to connect via AccessHHS (or a similar service with your community hospital, if available).
Or just keep sending yourself free 30-day trials… :P
How does this work? Well, UpToDate has, in addition to a list of all the peole with subscriptions (user IDs and passwords) a list of internet addresses belonging to institutions who have subscribed to their service. Any connection coming from one of these institutions gets to skip the login screen and go right to the goodies. To get this functionality through home, you have to route your internet requests through the McMaster network. You know, like in all those hacker movies.
Don’t worry, McMaster gives you access to do this; you won’t have to navigate some video-game appearing maze to bypass their security or anything. Although the first thing you should do is completely ignore the instructions McMaster gives you for accessing their VPN. They won’t work for using UpToDate, because the clients they tell you to use are pre-configured to exclude non-McMaster addresses (such as UpToDate!) from the connection you create, defeating the whole purpose of the exercise.
What you will need is:
- A MacID. Verify it using the link on that page to make sure it’s valid. There’s a number to call if you have any issues.
- Windows XP. You can probably get this working on other operating systems but that’s beyond the scope of this guide.
You need to create a new connection to McMaster in your network configuration. Go to Start –> Control Panel, Network and Internet Connections, Create a connection to the network at your workplace. If you’re using the classic view, it’s under “Network Connections”, File –> New Connection…, Next>, Connect to the network at my workplace.
Select Virtual Private Network, click Next.
Type in anything to identify this connection. I used “McMaster VPN”. Click Next.
Select “Do not dial the initial connection”. Click Next.
Type in macvpn.mcmaster.ca when asked for the host name of the computer. Click Next.
I would choose “Add a shortcut to this connection to my desktop.”, and click Finish.
Type in your MacID username and password in the box that appears. Choose whether you want to save this information for the future (so you don’t have to type it in every time) and click Connect.
If you have your correct userID and password, in a few seconds you should be greeted with a new icon in the bottom right corner confirming your connection.
Then simply navigate to www.utdol.com (or www.uptodate.com and click on the link to login). Click Accept, and you’re in!
When you’re done, you should probably disconnect from the VPN so as not to use up McMaster’s bandwidth on your regular browsing needs. Right click on the connection icon in the status bar and click on Disconnect.
When you need to connect again, find the icon created on your desktop and double-click. Simple!
Contact Me if you have any questions or comments on the above.
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