Connecting to Linux machines with SSH (Windows)

Summary

Connect to a Linux machine from a Windows machine.

Environment

Windows

Directions

1. Download PuTTY from its website if it's not already installed on your Windows machine.
2. Start up PuTTY.
3. In the screen under Hostname (or IP Address) enter the name of the machine. For example, login.itd.umich.edu.
   If the machine you are trying to connect to does not have a hostname or cannot be resolved by DNS for some reason, but has the SSH service running, you can still connect to it by using its IP address. Just substitute the IP address instead of the host name.
4. Click Open.
5. In the new window, enter your username and password for the remote host.

 Note: The root user is typically not permitted to log in over ssh. This is best-practice security and should not be casually overridden.

You are now connected to the remote machine. You will see a new prompt with the name of the machine you are connecting to (for example, hostname%).