Harvard Mathematics Department : Computing: ssh

SSH connection via client

Here are pointers for using "ssh" on Windows, Macintosh and Unix computers: In the following example, we connect to a computer abel.harvard.edu as a user "euler"

Windows XP
Use the "SecureCRT" application to connect to "math.harvard.edu" with the username "euler" and empty password.
Macintosh OS X
Using the "Terminal" application, type at the commandline
```
ssh euler.harvard.edu        
```

Linux, Solaris, OSX
In a terminal like "xterm", type
```
ssh euler.harvard.edu        
```
Macintoshs OS 9
Use the "SSH Secure Telnet" application for MaxOS 7-9 to connect to mathharvard.edu with the username "euler".

Secure copy a file

Assume you are on a computer which is connected to the web and want to upload a file "mytheses.tex" to your abel account, you can do that with

scp mytheses.tex euler.harvard.edu:mytheses.tex

You will be prompted with the password. After the upload, your file is in your homedirectory. If you want to upload the file into a directory, say "theses", then do

scp mytheses.tex euler.harvard.edu:theses/mytheses.tex

You can also give absolute path names like

scp /home/euler/mytheses.txt  euler.harvard.edu:/home/math1/euler/theses/mytheses.tex

SSH connection via web

To connect to the Mathematics department without terminal Nifty Telnet or SecureCRT. use the java ssh applet. You find a link also on the Mathematics department homepage.

Since 2002, telnet is soon no more available on the FAS network: here is more information.

More about SSH

Secure shell (ssh) replaces for rsh, rlogin, rcp, telnet, rexec, rcp and ftp. It runs on most platforms and allows secure remote logins, file copying, and tunneling of TCP and X11 traffic. There are two ssh versions, the older unsupported ssh1 and the newer ssh2. The later has more flexibility and security. Unfortunately, ssh1 and ssh2 are in general incompatible. Check out the ssh FAQ list for ssh. Ssh is included in the base OS distribution of most UNIX flavours (like Linux, OpenBSD), for Macintoshs, check out niftytelnet , for Windows, there is a Shareware available. See OpenSSH.com.

Simplicity, Clarity, Generality B.W. Kernighan, R. Pike, in "The Practice of Programming".