Working from Home: Resources & Support for City Employees

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many City of Durham staff continue to work from home. In fact, the City is encouraging employees who can work remotely to do so at this time. 

This page will continue to serve as a resource for City employees who are working from home, providing useful information about how to virtually connect to the City's network, best practices for virtual collaboration, and much more.

Have additional questions or need assistance? Contact the TS Service Desk at 919-560-4122, Option 1. TS is available to provide remote tech support.

  1. Virtual collaboration
  2. VPN (Remote Network Access)

TS has officially announced Microsoft Teams and Zoom as the standards for virtual collaboration for the City of Durham. This means that these are the only two platforms that should be used for virtual collaboration.

Microsoft Teams

Planning a meeting? Try scheduling a Microsoft Teams meeting. Teams makes it easy to meet virtually with your coworkers across the City, whether they’re down the hall or miles away. And, you don’t have to have a Team set up by TS or be a member of a Team to use Microsoft Teams!

Anyone with Office 365 can access Teams through their internet browser.

  • In your internet browser, login to Office 365 with your City computer login (City email and password).
  • Click the Teams button near the top of the page to go to your Teams dashboard.
  • In the left-hand toolbar, you will see options including Chat, Calendar, and Calls.
  • To start a virtual meeting, click the Calendar icon. (In order to use the audio or video functionality, you will need a device with a microphone and camera).
  • You can start a meeting immediately, or you can schedule one for later.

If you prefer, you can download the desktop or mobile app, although you may need TS to do this on City-issued computers.

Want to learn more about Teams meetings? TS has an online training site with short, self-paced videos. 

Zoom

Zoom is another tool that some departments are using for conference calls, but there are some limitations if you use a free account. Please note that if you are sharing and collaborating on documents, the use of Microsoft Teams is strongly advised (over Zoom).

Tips & Tricks for Working from Home

Home office with laptop and books
  1. Network Drives
  2. Printers

Accessing Network Files (K Drives)

K drives are available to employees who are working from their City office and plugged into the network. If you need to access the K Drives from home, please review the VPN instructions at the top of this page under the "VPN (Remote Network Access)" tab.

(H Drives have been migrated to Office.com OneDrive(s))

Once you receive your re-imaged (cleaned) computer from Technology Solutions, follow these steps to access your H and K Drives:

  1. Make sure your device is physically connected to the "wired" network (plug your network cable in)
  2. Restart your device
  3. Sign on to your device with your new login credentials (go to TS to reset your login)
  4. Validate that you have access to your H and K drives