Welcome to the IT Helpdesk website of the University of Helsinki

The IT-Helpdesk serves the University staff and students via chat, e-mail and telephone. Support and instructions are limited to the most important devices in the university’s centralised administration and the standard programmes on these devices. The IT Helpdesk’s instructions site is available 24/7.

Popular instructions

Landing pages

Microsoft 365

This guide includes the most important instructions related to Microsoft 365 -mail. You can find more help from this instructions site by using, for example, the search. If you cannot solve the problem with the instructions, don’t hesitate to contact the IT Helpdesk.

Cannot sign in to the cloud email? Please enter an account in the form username@ad.helsinki.fi (e.g. rkeskiva@ad.helsinki.fi)

Read more about Microsoft 365

Logging in to university services

The short form username (for example, rkeskiva or hy12345) is used to log in to the password change service helsinki.fi/password.

Services that are logged in to using login.helsinki.fi are logged in using the form username@ad.helsinki.fi (for example, rkeskiva@ad.helsinki.fi or hy12345@ad.helsinki.fi)).

Eduroam credentials username@helsinki.fi (for example, rkeskiva@helsinki.fi or hy12345@helsinki.fi).

NB! Your email will be in the format firstname.x.surname@helsinki.fi (for example raimo.j.keski-vaanto@helsinki.fi) though the login is done with the form username@ad.helsinki.fi.

Wireless networks at the University of Helsinki

These instructions include the most important information about wireless networks at the University of Helsinki. You can find more help from this instructions site by using, for example, the search.

If you cannot solve the problem with the instructions, don’t hesitate to contact the IT Helpdesk.

Connections from outside the University

The use of some of the University’s online services is limited to the university network for licence-related reasons. These services include the databases and electronic journals offered by the library. To use these services on a computer outside the university network, you are required to establish a secure connection between your home computer and the university server.

The most common technology for establishing such a connection is VPN (Wikipedia). To use a VPN connection, you need a valid university username.

Some of the University's online services, such as Flamma, can be accessed from

Multifactor Authentication (MFA)

This landing page contains links to all the University's MFA instructions. You can find more help from this instructions site by using, for example, the search. If you cannot solve the problem with the instructions, don’t hesitate to contact the IT Helpdesk.

Multifactor Authentication (MFA) improves information security by making scam attempts more difficult for cybercriminals. MFA is a feature that provides additional security when logging in to many of the University's services, and it uses a separate device to authenticate.

For new University staff and students

This guide includes the most important instructions related to the use of information technology for new University staff and students. You can find more help from this instructions site by using, for example, the search. If you cannot solve the problem with the instructions, don’t hesitate to contact the IT Helpdesk.

The IT instructions of the University of Helsinki are mainly available on this instructions site, which is open to everyone. Please note that the instructions often include a short quick guide and longer instructions with images. Some instructions also include video tutorials. The

Links to the most used services

Change your password Log in to your email Student: Activate your account!IT Security Test for staff members IT Security Test for students Tips for buying and replacing your computer IT Centre - Services in Flamma

Technical problems

Status of the IT Services

Current topics

17.04.2026

Lenovo computer BIOS updates begin 20 April 2026 – keep your device connected during the update

Lenovo computers under centralized University management will receive BIOS updates to new versions starting April 20, 2026. The update will be install together with regular Windows updates. You will see a notification on your computer screen when the update is ready to be installed.

17.04.2026

Service breaks in CurreChat, IT device order tool, Download Centre and other OpenShift-based services 21 April 2026 from 10 AM to 1 PM

The University’s OpenShift-based applications — incl. CurreChat, the IT device order tool Onify, the mobile subscriptions ordering tool, Download Centre, and the Ryhti tool for managing group storage spaces—will experience service breaks on 21 April 2026, between 10 AM to 1 PM. The service break is due to an OpenShift version update. See affected applications in this bulletin.

16.04.2026

Organizational grouping will be removed from the E-lomake questionnaire service on 21 April 2026

This change means that, instead of their faculty, unit, or department, university community members will see "University of Helsinki" displayed in the top right corner of the E-lomake service interface and beside their name on the profile page. Users do not need to take any action.

09.04.2026

Flamma Workgroups will be migrated to the XWiki platform by 23 November 2026 – prepare to mark your content for migration

The University will replace the Flamma Workgroups service’s (workgroups.helsinki.fi) current Confluence platform with the open-source XWiki platform in November 2026. Transitioning from the current platform to XWiki requires action from University community members due to the large amount of material in the service.

02.04.2026

Tunnelblick client application will be removed from university Mac computers 2 April 2026 due to a security vulnerability

The client application Tunnelblick, used to establish OpenVPN connections on Mac computers, will be centrally removed from all University Mac devices in the afternoon of 2 April 2026. The removal is due to a security vulnerability detected in the Tunnelblick application.

Cookie management
The IT Helpdesk instructions site is enabled to manage cookies. We recommend that you enable all cookies in order to ensure full use of the site. You can change your consent, if necessary, via the icon at the bottom of the page.

About translations
Translations will be handled using DeepL AI from April 2026 onwards.

Give feedback

The instructions site of the University of Helsinki's IT Helpdesk helps you with IT-related issues related to your work. Let us know how we can improve our instructions. We greatly appreciate your feedback!

How would you improve these instructions?