SFSU Physics & Astronomy Department

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8/18/2004 4:09 PM

Quick Guide to Remote Access to the P&A Computer System

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( Department computers | remote computer access )

This is a quick reference for someone trying to set up an off-campus computer to access the Physics and Astronomy computing system. It is mainly for people taking my classes. For a more general approach to the problem, see http://www.physics.sfsu.edu/compsys/remote.html, on the Department web page.

This will work best with DSL or cable internet, though a 56K modem can be used if you are patient. Only computers running a Microsoft Windows operating are considered - sorry!

• BROWSER. You need a browser, like Microsoft Internet Explorer, capable of downloading files from the internet.
• SSH. You can use a Secure Shell program (SSH) to connect to the Unix/Linux Department computers. I suggest that you use the SSH Secure Shell Client and SSH Secure File Transfer from SSH.com. Download the file SSHSecureShellClient-3.2.9.exe, from SSH Communications Security, at http://ftp.ssh.com/pub/ssh/, or my cached copy, at http://www.physics.sfsu.edu/compsys/ssh/.

  Install the program, and run it. Right away, go to Edit/Settings/Tunneling and enable Tunnel X11 connections. Save settings.

  Then connect to host th123-11.sfsu.edu or one of its clones (th123-12.sfsu.edu, etc). Use your P&A Unix-system login and password. Now save settings again

  Now you can do Unix/Linux command-line stuff, like ls (to see your files), pine to read your mail, who, whoami, etc.

• X Graphics. To display graphics created with IDL or other programs, you will need to install a X-Windows host. I recommend xwin32, a product of Starnet. Download x-win511.exe from http://www.physics.sfsu.edu/compsys/xwin32/. This is a 2-hour demo version. (Starnet offers only a 30-minute free demo verision now.)

  Install the program and run it. The first time you will be asked for some obscure information - answer any way you like, as this information is not required in the mode we use the program.

  Run the X-Win32 Configuration program (by double-clicking the icon in the task bar), selcet the Window tab, and turn Backing Store to Always On. This makes write_jpeg work better.

  As a test, from an SSH window, run xclock. A clock window should appear on your Windows desktop. Next open some xterm windows, by entering

  	xterm &
  

  in the SSH window a few times. The xterm window is better than the SSH window for programming.

  As a final test, run IDL in a xterm window, and execute the following test instruction to draw a straight line:

  	IDL>  plot,indgen(100)
  

  If the graph appears, IDL is ready to go.
• OTHER APPLICATIONS I have used this setup most satisfactorily for running IDL from home. It works even over a modem. I have found that MatLab just runs too slowly over DSL to be useful. I have had a hard time using Mathematica = I can't get the fonts right. If anyone figures out how to do this, please let me know.