When you log in, you are the "client." You want a program that can open up the remote system and start a "shell" for you. A shell is a place where you can type commands.

The "old" way to log is to use a "telnet" program. Telnet is bad because it sends your password without encryption. A better login in program should use "ssh" (secure shell) technology to protect your password. So what you want is some kind of ssh program. If you happen to be logged into a Linux/Unix system, you can usually just use the ssh program, as in

$ ssh pauljohn@condor.ibm.com

The ssh has a big plus, because, if you run a graphical program from that shell, then typically the graphical programs will show on your screen.

If you are in Windows or Mac, you can get one of many programs that can be good remote clients. A client program typically provides you a way to open your Unix account in the "console mode". You can't see fancy graphical stuff in here, but you can see text. (If you want to see pictures and a pretty graphical interface, you need something called an X-Windows Server. There are free and better expensive versions from different companies).

The telnet client supplied by Microsoft (the thing you get when you type "telnet" in a dos box or at the run prompt) is not very good. In fact, it is Downright Crap. There are many free telnet programs, you may already have one like QVTnet or TerraTerm. I love a program called NetTerm, which I think you are supposed to pay for if you use it for very long.

If you don't have a telnet client, the easiest and possibly best one to use is called PUTTY. On the Putty website, you can download an executable version for your system. Executable on MS Windows means a file that ends in "exe", "com" or "bin". Here is the address for the PUTTY site:

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty.html

Read around, download the newest putty.exe you can find. If his web site has changed, just go into www.google.com and you can find it easily.

When you have downloaded that file, put it somewhere in your filesystem. If you put it in C:\windows\command it will be in your path. If you don't understand path, it means the list of directories where MSWindows looks for files that you try to execute. If you don't put putty.exe someplace that is in your current path, then you either have to change your path (put a statement in autoexec.bat to do that) or you can just use it wherever you put it by double-clicking on it or you can make a desktop link to it in the usual way (right click, drag to desktop...)

Now, start your client program. It will ask you what host you want to log into, and that's where you say lark.cc.ukans.edu. In putty, make sure you click the "ssh" protocol button.

After your telnet client starts up, log into your account. You should see a "shell prompt", such as

[bill@lark]$

or something like that. You can custom tailor your prompt by learning about your shell (more later on that).

-- PaulJohnson - 08 Dec 2002