AAO Business Portal Login.

The AAO Business Portal is a Web server which has access to some components of the Microsoft Dynamics (Solomon) accounting system in use at the AAO.

This is, unfortunately, very much Microsoft centric and You must use Internet Explorer (windows only, version 6 or 7.) to make it work . (We were sold this system on the basis that it did not require IE .) But there are schemes which mean you don't need a windows machine as your main machine .

In addition - you need to be logged in on the AAO Domain - this is a scheme which allows you to use the one user name and password throughout AAO machines. The domain is aao-domain and under this scheme you may need to specify your username as aao-domain\<username> rather then just plain <username>. There will be a password associated with this domain login (at some point to become your main AAO password through both Windows and Unix systems).

Please choose the appropriate set of instructions for your client machine.

• Windows Users
• Mac Users
• Linux and Unix system Users

External Users

If you are outside the AAO, then you must first connect via the AAO VPN before you can access the business portal. This means that services will not be available to users with simple web access only.

Windows Users

Fully Set-up AAO Windows Users - logged in on the Domain.

If you use a MS Windows machine as your normal machine and have logged into the AAO domain, then you should need only to start IE and goto this page. Most testing has been done using IE 7, but IE 6 has been tried a bit and seems to work just as well.

Other Windows Users (not logged into the domain).

Goto this page and you will be prompted for your username and password. Specify aao-domain\<username> rather then just plain <username>. (For example aao-domain\tjf rather then tjf).

You may at this point be asked to install "Microsoft Business Framework" with the following dialog.

Please confirm you are viewing the right page and then select "Install". (If you don't have permission to do this install or have any doubts about what you are installing, please ask your machine administrator or AAO IT Systems staff for help.).

You may also have to add "businessportal" to your list of trusted sites - IE will tell you it has blocked the site but offer you the ability to add this site.

Other Windows Users via Remote desktop.

You might want to use Remote Desktop to connect from MS Windows clients in some cases (say to use a different user name from what you are logged in as on the domain). This program is found in

   Start->Programs->Accessories->Communications->Remote Desktop Connection

When you start the program you will be prompted for the name of the machine to connect to - which is "termsrv1" (192.231.167.203). I suggest you explore the "Options" and, in particular, save a configuration that will automatically connect to the machine. Also remember to specify the Domain as aao-domain.

If you get the login prompt without explict mention of the domain, specify aao-domain\<username>, as your username, where <username> is your username.

Now in the remote desktop MS Windows session, you should start IE and goto this page.

Mac Users

I'm afraid that you are forced to use Remote Desktop to log into a "terminal-services" MS Windows machine in order access the portal . You will need to log into the machine "termsrv1" (192.231.167.203)

The Microsoft version of Remote Desktop seems to work somewhat better then the X11 version. If you have Microsoft Office 2004 installed on your mac, then you will find this in

/Applications/Microsoft Office 2004/Additional Tools/Remote Desktop Connection

Otherwise, goto the The Micro$oft Mac site and find a link to the Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac. Download and install this.

When you start the program you will be prompted for the name of the machine to connect to. I suggest you explore the "Options" and, in particular, save a configuration that will automatically connect to the machine. If you run a second display, the display options allow you to put the MS Windows fullscreen on your second display, which seems to work well for me. Also remember to specify the Domain as aao-domain.

If you get the login prompt without explict mention of the domain, specify aao-domain\<username>, as your username, where <username> is your usernas

Now in the remote desktop MS Windows session, you should start IE and goto this page.

Linux Users

I'm afraid that you are forced to use Remote Desktop to log into a "terminal-services" MS Windows machine in order access the portal . You will need to log into the machine "termsrv1" (192.231.167.203)

If not already installed on your machine, an open source version of Remote Desktop is available from Sourceforge. From the command line, you should be able to run this with just

rdesktop -d aao-domain -u tjf 192.231.167.203

Run rdesktop without any arguments to see the full list of options.

Now in the remote desktop MS Windows session, you should start IE and goto this page.

Page Security settings

These settings make this page visible by all.

• Set ALLOWTOPICVIEW = AAOGeneralGroup, TWikiAdminGroup, TWikiGuest

-- TonyFarrell - 03 Apr 2007