Using PuTTY to Connect to SPH UNIX Machines

Putty.exe is a small program for computers running Microsoft Windows that performs an ssh connection to a remote UNIX computer. ssh operates much like telnet except that all traffic that travels between the Windows computer and the remote UNIX machine is encrypted in order to prevent eavesdroppers on the network from seeing the data. For this reason, SPH UNIX machines only support ssh connections. SPH users will not be able to telnet or ftp to these machines.

Windows users have two supported options for ssh software. For the easiest setup, we recommend the Putty program, available on the Internet from http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/. We also have a second U of M-licensed ssh software package on the U: drive of any SPH Netware-enabled Windows machine. Other ssh software packages are available under the "For Other OS's" section on the sidebar of http://www.openssh.com/. This document will describe how to use the putty.exe program.

To install and start the software:

Download the putty.exe file from http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/. You may find several programs that can be downloaded from this site. For interactive shell logins (the % prompt) to an SPH UNIX machine you only need the putty.exe program.
Save it to a location that is convenient for double-clicking, e.g. your desktop. There is no installer for putty and so wherever you save the file is where you will run the program from (unless you decide to create shortcuts to it from other locations such as the Start Menu).
Start up putty.exe by double-clicking on the program icon.

Once your have started putty.exe, you can connect to a remote UNIX machine directly or you can first create a profile for easy future connections.

If you want to connect directly to a UNIX host without using a saved profile:

Enter the desired hostname in the Host Name box, e.g. compute0.sph.umich.edu.
Check the radiobutton next to the SSH box (the telnet button will then be unselected).
(Optional) Change putty's backspace character by clicking on the Keyboard tab near the top of the window and checking the Control-H radiobutton. If you don't do this step and have problems with your backspace key, you should perform this step in the future.
Click on Open near the bottom of the window.
You may see a warning that this host's host key is not cached in the registry. This is normal the first time you connect to a host or whenever the host key for the remote machine changes (which is a rare event). Click Yes to continue.
You can then log in by entering your password as you normally would.

You may also create a stored-session so that you do not need to re-enter the host information each time you start putty.exe. The process is similar to the direct connection instructions above but has a few additional steps in order to save the settings.

Enter the desired hostname in the Host Name box, e.g. compute0.sph.umich.edu.
Check the radiobutton next to the SSH box (the telnet button will then be unselected).
(Optional) Change putty's backspace character by clicking on the Keyboard tab near the top of the window and checking the Control-H radiobutton. If you don't do this step and have problems with your backspace key, you should perform this step in the future.
If you changed the backspace setting in the previous step, you will need to click on the Connection tab to get back to the main window.
Enter a name for your stored profile. You may wish to use a name that includes the first part of the hostname you are connecting to, e.g. "compute0".
Click on Save to save these settings.
From this point on, you can double-click on your named profile immeadiately after starting the putty.exe program in order to connect to this host.

There are other settings that you may wish to change before your save your profile such as the number of text rows in your window (see the Terminal tab).

Hint: You can click on a previously-saved profile name once to highlight it and then click Load to load those settings without actually connecting to the remote host. This allows you to make additional changes to the profile and optionally save them again before making your connection.