SSH is our most popular way to get in or out of a UNIX machine nowadays.
As those astrophysicists do a lot of computational research, they typically
have UNIX boxes doing the number crunching. SSH is how UCO/Lick users get
into their research machines.
There are three main operating systems that people want to go from to
get to their UNIX boxen. Each one of the following sections covers how to
use a client on a particular operating system.
UNIX workstations:
There's a few things worth pointing out about SSH on a UNIX box,
but all in all, it's blessedly simple.
Windows workstations:
while each client is different, there are a few common points. In
addition to common points, a more in-depth discussion of F-Secure for
Windows (and its usage on our network) is contained within.
Mac workstations: same basic content
as the Windows section, except for that characteristic
Apple flavor.
Beyond the basic operating system issues, there are a few things worth
thinking about:
Key generation: in addition to
typing out your password on the keyboard, it's possible to do key-based
authentication (with or without typing of passwords). Managing keys is
different for every platform; to whet your appetite, there's a discussion
for how one generates (and uses) a key pair at the end of the
UNIX page
above. IBM has a much more thorough article series here if you need
further information.
SSH'ing into UCO/Lick: from the
outside world, you can only get in via the host ssh.ucolick.org. You
cannot ssh directly to any other workstations on our network. This has
been "the way it is" since December 2001.
If you want someone else's opinion, here's a few external links:
OpenSSH: the de-facto
standard on modern UNIX variants, supports both ssh v.1 and v.2
protocols with a minimum of fuss.
