Logging in to OSCER Computers via Secure Shell

Please note that, for security reasons, you can log into OSCER resources via Secure Shell only.

Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP/Vista

Downloading and Installing PuTTY

1. Point your browser to the PuTTY download page:
   http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html
    
2. On the "PuTTY Download Page," in the section titled "Binaries," under "For Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP and Vista on Intel x86," right click on the first link putty.exe, and from the menu select "Save Link As" (or something similar).
    
3. Save putty.exe to your Windows desktop. The icon will look like two little PCs and a yellow lightning bolt.

Running PuTTY to Log In to an OSCER Computer

1. Double click on the PuTTY icon. This will pop up a window titled
   PuTTY Configuration
    
2. On the left side of the PuTTY Configuration window, under the heading
   Terminal,
   is an entry
   Keyboard
   Click on
   Keyboard
    
3. This will bring up a section titled
   Options controlling the effects of keys
   Under this is a heading
   Change the sequences sent by:
   and beneath that is
   The Backspace key
   Select
   Control-H
    
4. A bit lower is
   The Function keys and keypad
   Select
   Xterm R6
    
5. On the left side of the
   PuTTY Configuration
   window, below
   Terminal
   and its subentries, is an entry
   Window
   Click on
   Window
    
6. This will bring up a section titled
   Options controlling PuTTY's window
   The first option is
   Set the size of the window
   You may choose as many rows as you like (40 is recommended), but you should be sure to choose EXACTLY 80 columns.
   NEVER RESIZE THE PUTTY WINDOW USING THE MOUSE, AND NEVER CLICK THE MAXIMIZE BUTTON AT THE TOP RIGHT OF THE WINDOW.
    
7. On the left side of the PuTTY Configuration window, the last major heading is
   Connection
   Below that is a subheading
   SSH
   and below that is a sub-sub-heading
   X11
   Click on
   X11
    
8. In the section titled
   Options controlling SSH X11 forwarding
   select
   Enable X11 forwarding
   NOTE: X-Windows forwarding will work only if your Windows PC has some kind of X-Windows emulator (e.g., X-Win32, Hummingbird Exceed).
   If you don't have an X-Windows emulator on your Windows PC, then you don't need to do this.
    
9. On the left side of the PuTTY Configuration window, the first entry is
   Session
   Click on
   Session
    
10. This will bring up a section titled
    Basic options for your PuTTY session
    The first option is
    Specify the destination you want to connect to
    Immediately below it is
    Host Name (or IP address)
    In the text box immediately below that, type the full name of the computer that you are logging into; for example:
    topdawg.oscer.ou.edu
     
11. Immediately below this is
    Protocol
    Select
    SSH
     
12. If you want to save this login information, then immediately below that is a section titled
    Load, save or delete a stored session
    and immediately below that is
    Saved Sessions
    In the text box below that, again type the name of the computer that you are logging into; for example:
    topdawg.oscer.ou.edu
     
13. To the right of, and slightly below, that textbox are some buttons. Click on
    Save
    The computer name that you just typed will appear in the larger text box just to the left of the buttons.
    In future, you'll be able simply to double click on one of the computer names in this box, rather than going through all of these details.
     
14. At the bottom right of the PuTTY Configuration window, click
    Open
     
15. If a
    PuTTY Security Alert
    window pops up, click
    Yes
     
16. When prompted to login as, type your username and press the Enter key.
     
17. When prompted for your password, type your password and press the Enter key.
    NOTHING WILL APPEAR AS YOU TYPE YOUR PASSWORD. This is normal for Unix.

MacOS

For MacOS X you don't need PuTTY and can't use it, because PuTTY is only available for Windows. However, you can use ssh from the Unix command line, by starting up a Unix Terminal window:

1. Double click on your hard drive icon to open it.
    
2. Double click on your Applications folder.
    
3. Double click on your Utilies folder.
    
4. Double click on Terminal.
    
5. Once you get a Terminal window, you'll get a Unix prompt. At the Unix prompt, type:
   ssh yourusername@computername
    
6. For example, computername might be topdawg.oscer.ou.edu.
    
7. You may be asked a yes/no question, in which case type the full word
   yes
   in all lower case.
    
8. You'll then be prompted for your password. NOTHING WILL APPEAR AS YOU TYPE YOUR PASSWORD. This is normal for Unix.

Unix (including Linux)

Most Unix computers already have ssh installed, so you can just use it from the Unix command line, as described above for MacOS, starting from item #5.

Copyright (C) 2004-2007 OU Supercomputing Center for Education & Research