Accessing Remote Computers, or what is PUTTY?

• How are you using your home computer?
  • You probably logged in.
  • And everything you type, click, swipe or otherwise interact with goes directly to that computer.
  • Duh, that makes sense.
• But what if you want to use another computer?
  • You could move to that computer and do the same thing.
  • Or you could use a program to access that computer.
• Could you drive to campus and use cslab103.cs.edinboro.edu?
  • Well, campus is mostly closed so probably not.
  • And it is kept in a "server" room, behind two locked doors, so probably not.
  • And it is not really a computer.
• CSLAB103
  • This is a virtual machine
    • That means that is really is a computer simulator
    • Ok, so they like the words virtual or emulation
    • But it is just a program that is pretending to be a physical computer.
  • So there is no way to "sit down in front of it" as it has no real hardware.
  • You could sit down in front of the machine it is running on, (csvm1 I think)
    • But it is still locked behind a number of doors.
    • And it really doesn't have a keyboard or monitor either.
    • It is a rack mount server
    • 
    • There is a KVM connected to it but
      • If this were our method of access, we would have to stand in line with most of the cs students.
      • And the faculty
      • And the systems administrators.
• So How do I access a remote machine?
  • There are a number of communications protocols that define how this can be done.
    • SSH is the secure shell
      • This protocol defines how programs can communicate securely over the network.
    • SFTP or secure file transfer protocol
      • This is a protocol that defines how to transfer files securely over the network.
    • SCP or secure copy is the same.
  • But protocols are just rules,
  • So programs are written to implement these rules.
• puTTY
  • puTTY is part of a large family of communications programs.
  • It can use a number of different protocols.
  • But it allows you to
    • Type commands on your host computer
    • And have them executed on a remote computer.
    • It is a terminal emulator
      • Back in the bad old days, a terminal was a keyboard and a monitory that was wired directly into a computer.
      • There could (and usually were) multiple of these in a building.
      • They allowed multiple people to use the same computer.
    • But puTTY is not a computer.
      • It is a program.
  • Do a quick demo on configuring puTTY
    • There is a guide here
• FileZilla, WinSCP and others
  • These programs are set up to do file transfer
  • WinSCP does much more.
• I use WinSCP
  • Here are several guides to using WinSCP.