Remote Login

The beauty and power of network computing is that you don't have to be sitting at a particular machine to use its resources. You can log into any machine in the cluster from any other node on the greater network. All you need is software that will make the appropriate network connections. We will consider the three most likely scenarios here. Note that all users are strongly encouraged to utilize secure connection software to protect their passwords.

• Connecting from another Unix node (that is, you are already logged into one Unix machine and want to log into another Unix machine): all Unix systems should have a command called ssh available. Standard usage is
  you@localhost% ssh username@remotehost
• Connecting from a PC running Windows: all PC's at TUNL should have a Windows-based ssh client called Tera Term Pro installed. Usage is very simple. Double-click on the Tera Term icon or start the program from the Windows Start menu. Next choose your host from the dialog box and enter your username and password.
• Connecting from a Macintosh: all Mac's at TUNL should have a program called Nifty Telnet installed. Contrary to its name, it is a ssh client (rather than just an insecure telnet client). Again usage is simple: choose a host and enter username and password.

Copies of Nifty Telnet and Tera Term Pro can be obtained from Duke's Office of Information Technology (OIT) web page: http://www.oit.duke.edu/security/encryption/. There is also a java-based ssh client called Mindterm that can be started from this page.