If you are running Windows™, you will need to download an SSH client. Labstaff recommends using Putty from:
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

Download either the Putty installer or the Putty application by itself. After installing Putty, you will need to set up a “session” to connect to one of the CS systems.

• Enter a host name to connect to, e.g. one of the Hydra or Cetus lab systems.
• Give a name to the session.
• Hit Save to save this session

You can set up multiple sessions with different hosts to which to connect. You may want to look through Putty's many options to set up customizations such as colors. Remember to save your session each time you change one of the options.

To execute a session, simply double-click it and log in.

It is possible to forward X11 (X-Windows) sessions through SSH and have the X windows displayed on your local system. However, you will need to download an X11 server for MS Windows. Labstaff recommends the XMing server available from http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=156984. You will want to download either the XMing or XMing-Mesa package. The Mesa package will allow you to use some applications that require OpenGL as it is compiled with the MesaGL library. You also need the XMing-fonts package to display some fonts used by such applications as Emacs.

Install the main XMing or XMing-Mesa package first and then install the fonts. Once you have XMing installed, start it and you should see a tray icon for XMing like this:

To turn on X11 forwarding in Putty, load your session and select “X11” from the tree of options on the left. Then check the “Enable X11 Forwarding” box. Be sure to remember to save your session again.

You should now be able to run X11 applications from your Putty window as shown below. In the illustration you can see that some OpenGL applications can be successfully forwarded using the XMing-Mesa package. The glxinfo command can tell you what OpenGL extensions are available in your current display. Be sure to quit XMing when you have finished with your session by right-clicking on the tray icon and selecting exit.