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Fugu too! or...What's SSH/SCP/SFTP?
For many of you the wonders of remote access maybe known, but there's just as many of you who have never seen the letters S, S and H standing so close together. You maybe wondering what does this have to do with me?
SSH stands for Secure Shell. If you've heard of telnet it's a lot like that except less prone to eavesdropping (that's the secure part). SSH uses encryption to encode and decode a message like a toy decoder ring from a Corn Pops ceral box. Basically, it helps to ensure that nobody can steal your passwords or your secret recipes. Similarly, SCP (Secure Copy) and SFTP (Secure FTP) act just the same but are meant just for transferring files securely between machines (eg. your website). With SSH, you can login into servers like itp.nyu.edu from other computers and upload files, move stuff around, write code, etc. It's great, but how do you do it? Let's play.
On Mac OSX
I'm pleased to introduce Terminal.app. Terminal.app is a descendent of the mighty commandline that you may have heard about. It's your window into the machine. It's old school and high tech at the same time, that's how cool it is. You can find it in the Utilities directory.
/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app
Open it up and you will see something like (perhaps minus the incredibly readable color screen and transparency...I'm so cool):
Using Terminal.app requires some typing, so put the mouse away for now. Don't be scared, it's actually really easy. To visit itp.nyu.edu type in and run the following after the $ sign:
$ ssh NETID@itp.nyu.edu
where NETID is your NYU NETID. If this is your first time there will be a prompt asking if you'd like to save the SSH fingerprint, say Yes. When asked enter your password (it's the same as your NYU email password). And your in!
For drag n' drop easy file transfers look no further than Fugu. Why? Because it's free and it's available in the labs (although if you insist feel free to try Cyberduck or pay for Transmit). Fugu works much the same way, just plug in these details:
Username: NETID
where NETID is your NYU NETID.
Hit Connect. Now you can download and upload files to and from your computer to your hearts content.
On Windows
Unfortunately, Windows doesn't come with an SSH client (Microsoft and security where's the love?). So might I recommend �SSH Client�: which you'll find in the labs. Once that's installed, fire it up and let's make a new connection. Select Quick Connect, and enter
Username: NETID
where NETID is your NYU NETID.
Hit Connect. Oh, your in! SSH Client is helpful and will offer to save this connection as a profile for you. If you'd like that, give it a name (like itp) and hit Ok. From here you can do whatever you need as well as open other terminal windows or file transfer windows. SSH Client is now your one stop shop for SSH and SFTP.