Logging In

Logging into a remote UNIX based system requires a program generally called a client. The options for the client depends on your OS.

SSH

Command line access through a terminal on your computer is based on the ssh or Secure Shell protocol. It is

• Encrypted
• Available on most UNIX systems

Your ssh client communicates with the ssh server program running on the remote system. Once established, the connection is secure even if the network is insecure.

Example

If your computer is a MacOS or Linux system, you log in with

ssh -Y mst3k@virginia.edu

Throughout this tutorial we will use mst3k as our example user ID. You should substitute your own. The option -Y allows access to graphical applications and requires that an X11 server application must be installed on your computer. This should be the default for Linux, but MacOS users must install XQuartz before this command-line option will be useful.