Using ssh

Accessing Your Account

For security reasons we only allow remote login via ssh. You should be able to use ssh from any Athena machine by simply executing:

    % ssh -l <username> <machinename>

We recommend that you use ssh with your password and not bother to set up private and public keys.

The scp command

Similarly, our machines do not allow ftp connections. You will need to use scp to transfer files between your local machine and the server machine. Examples:

Command What it does
% scp foo.txt andrew@aegrumet.mit.edu:
Copies foo.txt from the local machine to andrew's home directory on aegrumet.mit.edu. Don't forget to include the trailing colon (:).
% scp foo.txt andrew@aegrumet.mit.edu:/web/andrew/www
Copies foo.txt from the local machine to /web/andrew/www on aegrumet.mit.edu
% scp *.html andrew@aegrumet.mit.edu:/web/andrew/www
Copies all files ending in html from the current directory on the local machine to /web/andrew/www on aegrumet.mit.edu.
% scp andrew@aegrumet.mit.edu:"/web/andrew/www/*.html" .
Copies all files ending in html from /web/andrew/www/ on aegrumet.mit.edu to the current directory on the local machine. Note the use of double quotes. This prevents glob expansion by the shell on the local machine. Also, don't forget the final "dot" (.)

Command	What it does
% scp foo.txt andrew@aegrumet.mit.edu:	Copies foo.txt from the local machine to andrew's home directory on aegrumet.mit.edu. Don't forget to include the trailing colon (:).
% scp foo.txt andrew@aegrumet.mit.edu:/web/andrew/www	Copies foo.txt from the local machine to /web/andrew/www on aegrumet.mit.edu
% scp *.html andrew@aegrumet.mit.edu:/web/andrew/www	Copies all files ending in html from the current directory on the local machine to /web/andrew/www on aegrumet.mit.edu.
% scp andrew@aegrumet.mit.edu:"/web/andrew/www/*.html" .	Copies all files ending in html from /web/andrew/www/ on aegrumet.mit.edu to the current directory on the local machine. Note the use of double quotes. This prevents glob expansion by the shell on the local machine. Also, don't forget the final "dot" (.)

For more information, see the scp man pages.

Secure X Window connections

Notice that if you are coming from a machine running X, ssh connections "tunnel through," allowing you to display X windows on your local machine. In other words, if you are logged in and type "emacs" you will get emacs window displayed on your local machine, and anything you type is secure.

Similarly, if you type "netscape" you will get a netscape window on your local machine. Like we said, don't do this. Run browsers directly on your local machine.

Getting more information, source code, or commercial versions

If you need to set up ssh on your home machine, or simply want to learn more about it, you can get some good info at the following places:

SSH Users Group
SSH Network Protocol Development
F-Secure (commercial version for Win95/NT/Mac)
TTSSH (free ssh client for Windows)

Note: If you plan to purchase an ssh client, be sure to test for version compatibility with our ssh server. You can check the server version by ssh'ing in like so:

% ssh -v -l <username> <machinename>

hurley@lcs.mit.edu

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