Using UNIX from a Windows Computer

To use UNIX from a Microsoft Windows computer requires some effort. The two main approaches include

• Logging into an UNIX server (requires an account on the server), and
• Installing an UNIX/Linux emulator directly into Windows.

Both of these approaches require you to install software on your Windows computer.

Logging into an UNIX server

The standard protocol for logging into a modern UNIX server is through using a Secure SHell (SSH) client. A free SSH client available for MS Windows computers is PuTTY

To install and use PuTTY:

• Download PuTTY from here.
• Install using the default settings on your computer.
• Double-click the PuTTY icon
• Enter the UNIX/Linux server hostname in the 'Host Name' box, and press the 'Open' button at the bottom of the dialog box.
• Enter your username and password when prompted.

For additional information on using PuTTY, see the Online User Manual.

Enabling X11-Forwarding (Popping up windows from the UNIX server)

In order to pop up windows from the UNIX/Linux server on your Windows computer, you will also need an X11 server running on your computer. Two of the most popular X11 servers for Windows are Xming and XWin32 (not free). I would recommend Xming.

To install and use Xming

• Download the installation files for Xming and Xming-fonts from this site.
• Install them on your computer in the order: Xming then Xming-fonts, using the default settings.
• Run Xming
• When starting PuTTY, configure X11 forwarding by clicking on "Connection" then "SSH" then "X11" then checking the box next to "Enable X11 forwarding".
• After logging into the remote server, pop up applications from the server directly on your desktop (e.g. xterm or emacs).

Transferring files to/from a UNIX server

The current standard protocol for transferring files to and from a UNIX server is through using a ssh-enabled ftp client (SFTP). Two free SFTP clients available for MS Windows computers are FileZilla and WinSCP.

FileZilla

To install FileZilla:

• Download the FileZilla client for Windows from here.
• Install using the default settings on your computer.
• Double-click the FileZilla icon.

To use FileZilla, fill in the fields for the host (e.g. titan.smu.edu), your username on that host (e.g. reynolds), your password, and the port (use 22 for SFTP), and hit [return]. You should notice two file browser windows open up, the browser on the left is on your computer, the browser on the right is from the UNIX host (e.g. titan). Transfer files by dragging them from one computer to the other with your mouse.

WinSCP

To install WinSCP:

• Download the WinSCP installation package from here.
• Install using the default settings on your computer.
• Double-click the WinSCP icon.

To use WinSCP, fill in the fields for the host name (e.g. titan.smu.edu), your username on that host (e.g. reynolds), your password, and hit [return]. You should notice two file browser windows open up, the one on the left is on your computer, and the one on the right is from the UNIX host (e.g. titan). Transfer files by dragging them from one computer to the other with your mouse.

Installing and Using a Linux/UNIX emulator

The most popular (and free) Linux/UNIX emulator to run from within Windows is Cygwin. I would recommend the slightly more advanced subset, Cygwin/X, since we are planning to pop up windows from remote servers on our Windows computer.

To install Cygwin/X

• Download the Cygwin setup installer, setup.exe.
• Run the installer (see the Cygwin/X User's Guide for detailed documentation on the installation process)
• Proceed using installation defaults
• In selecting packages for installation, ensure that you select "X11->xorg-x11-base", "Net->inetutils" and "Net->openssh", in addition to any other UNIX/Linux programs you may want. Click "Next".
• Installation may take quite some time, depending on the number of packages chosen to install.

To use Cygwin/X

• Double-click the Cygwin icon.
• In the new terminal window, treat it as you would any standard UNIX/Linux terminal.
• To enable the display of application windows from remote servers, type startx at the prompt, and use the new terminal window that appears to log into the remote server with the command ssh username@servername -CX.
• To transfer files using the command line, use the new terminal window with the scp command. For further information on using scp see this page.

D.R. Reynolds, 20 January 2009