Windows SSH using PuTTY

To logon to your Linux account from a remote site you need to use the SSH (Secure SHell) protocol. SSH is a standard install on most Unix/Linux systems, but under Windows you need to add it yourself. A popular option for this is the PuTTY program, which provides a simple to use SSH client for Win9x, NT, 2K, and XP. Another option is to install the Cygwin environment, which provides a complete Unix-like layer within Windows - but that is outside the scope of this document!

Download

You can download PuTTY from this site. Note that SCP (Secure CoPy) and SFTP (Secure FTP) programs are also available.

Configuration

The simplest way to explain the required configuration is to show some screen shots of the setup that I use. If you run PuTTY, set the options show below, then you should be able to logon without any trouble.

Enter the name of the machine you want to logon to, and select the SSH protocol. Note that if you wish you can opt to save the session settings in this dialog, so you may want to return here when you've set the other options.
Set your terminal type to xterm, and enter your username on the Linux network.
Select the checkbox for the SSH2 protocol.

That's it. Save the options if you wish, then click Open. The first time you logon to a machine, PuTTY will query if you wish to accept/store the SSH Key for the remote system. You should select to Accept and Store the key.

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Windows SSH using PuTTY

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Configuration

Last updated Wednesday January 18, 2006