Remote Access via SSH

SSH stands for Secure SHell and that is exactly what it provides. This remote method access is ideal for situations where a remote interactive logon is needed to a particular machine, and that machine is capable of running an SSH or telnet daemon.

A prerequisite to using SSH for remote access is a functional SSH v2 client. Listed below, in order of preference, are some good SSH clients for Win32 (Linux and Mac OSX users most likely already have a version of OpenSSH installed; open a terminal and type "which ssh" at the prompt). Installation instructions for each of these should be available at the given web sites.

Ssh Secure Shell (Requires an ISU Net-ID and password, see www.ssh.com for installation instructions)
Putty
Cygwin (NOTE: This is an entire posix system for windows and is probably overkill just for an SSH client. Downloads can be over 350MB if all packages are selected.)

These instructions will walk you through setting up a profile and logging in with the SSH Secure Shell client.

First, click on 'profiles' and select 'Add profile' as shown below.

Enter any descriptive name you like, this is for your reference only. Once finished, click 'Add to Profiles.'

Next, click on 'profiles' again and select 'Edit profile' as shown below.

Below there are several items that need attention:

Make sure the correct profile is selected
Set the hostname to 'ssh.ameslab.gov'
Set the username to your e-mail username

Once finished, click 'OK'

To connect, click on 'profiles' and select the profile name that you just setup. When prompted for a password, use your ames laboratory e-mail password.

Open an ssh connection to the host ssh.ameslab.gov and login using your Ames Laboratory e-mail account name and password.

Once logged in you will be presented with the following menu:

External Services Menu
Choose a service:

1. Access to AmesLab email using Pine
2. Connect to an internal AmesLab host using SSH
3. Connect to an internal AmesLab host using Telnet
4. Logout of External Services and disconnect

Choice?

To fully protect your session, choose option 2 and provide the host name you want to connect to. If the destination cannot run an SSH daemon and telnet is the only option, choose number 3 to make a telnet connection.

To transfer files via SSH or to create an encrypted tunnel for other applications (ie. X Windows), visit our instructions on