Information Technology

All new hires are required to sign our "Acceptable Use Policy" electronically in order for the Department of Information Technology to create your new West Hartford domain account and town email address. If you have yet to receive and sign this document from the IT department, please call 860-561-6636 prior to your start date and provide us with a personal email address for us to send you the document. 

Submit your request online or in an emergency call Helpdesk at 860-561-6636. Whatever method you use, please provide contact information, a description of your problem, the location of the computer(s), and any other information that will assist us in assessing the problem. The appropriate staff will be assigned to respond to your need in a timely manner. Helpdesk instructions.

Be sure you have submitted a helpdesk ticket requesting VPN with the Department of Information Technology prior to installing.

Instructions for VPN and Remote Desktop 
Multifactor Authentication Instructions & FAQs

For those of you working remotely there is a responsibility to protect the town enterprise environment and town data you access.  We have put together guidelines to help you understand what you need to do.  

When working from home please confirm the following: 

• The wireless (WiFi) connection you are using is secure.   You can confirm that by going to the  Network and Internet settings and it will display if the connection is Open or Secure.  No town business should be conducted on an Open (non-secure) internet connection. 

• Ensure you are prompted to enter a password when accessing Wi-Fi to perform remote work. Your internet service should provide guidance on securing your home WiFi. Additional information can be found here https://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/tips/ST15-002.
   
• Your personal computer is up to date on operating system patches and application patches.  To check Windows 10 patches enter update in your quick search and select the check for updates box.

• If current patches are applied, it will return a message that "You’re up to date" otherwise it will display the required patches.  Be sure to follow your agency IT procedures to apply patches.
   
• You have an antivirus program running on your personal computer and it is performing daily updates.  There are a number of packages available.  Windows Defender Antivirus is embedded with the OS.  Other options include (but not limited to) McAfee, Malwarebytes, Norton, etc. 
   
• You dedicate a specific user account or designate a computer that only you will use to ensure town data cannot be shared with other household members.  The password must be complex and the device should be locked when it will be unattended.   
   
• Be alert for phishing email and online scams that may use the current crisis to encourage opening suspicious files or links.  Protect your user credentials by not giving them out or entering them in unknown locations.  Continue to practice vigilance and confirm unexpected financial or information transfers. See our Tech Tip on phishing emails and online scams for more information. 
   
• You only use remote tools and sharing technologies approved by your agency.  If you are considering another method, check with Helpdesk before putting town data in a location or technology such as DropBox.
   
• If you are using VPN, disconnect from it when not in use – it’s a shared resource that is limited. 

Access the "add [email] account" function on your personal cell phone, iPad or tablet, and configure the account using the information provided below:

Account type is: Microsoft Exchange

Enter your Town email address. E.g. Jane.Public@WestHartfordCT.gov

Enter the password you use to login to your computer at work.

Description: you can leave as “Exchange” or rename to “Work Email,” etc.

Server is: mail.westhartford.org

Domain is: westhartford or westhartford.org

Username: your username when logging to your computer at work. (Please note, Android users may need to add a \ before username. Ie: \username, or if there is no Domain field, username will be westhartford\username).

Enable mail, contacts, calendars, reminders as appropriate.

You will be prompted to create a PIN that is at least 4 digits long.

Email will begin to filter in.

To access Town email, go to https://mail.westhartford.org/owa. Enter your username and password that you would use to login into your Town computer. You do not need VPN to access email.

You can also click "Employee Email" located in the footer of each town web page. 

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Cisco Voicemail Setup 7900 series