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Home > Department Resources > Computing > SSH for Windows

SSH Clients for Microsoft Windows

(adapted -- with thanks to Steve Sizemore et al -- from notes prepared for the UC Berkeley Math Department, 9/17/02, Dan Plonsey)

To connect to UC Berkeley Astronomy Department computers, you must install a version of SSH2 on your home computer.
N.B.: SSH1 will not work!

This page gives information on SSH clients for Microsoft WindowsTM

What We Recommend

We recommend the software SSH Secure Shell, written by SSH Communications Security, the original authors of SSH. It can be obtained either from the Connecting @ Berkeley (C@B) CD-ROM distributed for free by the campus, or by download. This software is free for use by UC Berkeley faculty, staff, and students. It requires Windows 95 or newer.

Downloading the Software

To obtain the software via download, the first step is to make sure you have a valid CalNet ID. Go to Kelley McDonald to get one if you have not done so already.

Next, go to the web page at Software Central. Scroll down to near the bottom of the page, and click on the link labeled SSH Secure Shell  On the resulting page, click on the link Download from UCB and follow the directions. When downloading, it may be helpful to make a note of the directory that you are downloading the file into.

Installing the Software

Because of licensing issues, we recommend that you uninstall any older copy of SSH that you may have already installed on your computer, especially versions older than version 3.0. To do this, complete the following steps:

  1. Click the Start button, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
  2. Double-click Add/Remove Programs.
  3. Click the Install/Uninstall tab.
  4. Select SSH Secure Shell, and then click Add/Remove.
  5. Select Remove, and then click Next.
  6. The remaining steps are straightforward.

More information on licensing issues is available at Software Central.

Next, navigate to the directory where you downloaded SSH (or to the proper place on the C@B CD-ROM), and double-click on SSHWinClient-3.1.0-build235 (the version number may have changed since this was written). Then, follow the directions. The installation uses the InstallShieldTM Wizard, so the procedure should be familiar to you.

Using SSH Secure Shell to Connect to the Department

To connect to the Astronomy Department, complete the following steps:

  1. Double-click the SSH Secure Shell icon on the desktop (or run it from the Programs menu).
  2. Press Enter or Space.
  3. In the resulting window, enter "irk.berkeley.edu" in the first box (or instead of irk, use your computer), and your login name in the second box. Click Connect.
  4. In the next dialog box Host Identification, just click Yes. (This window only appears the first time you log in to any given host.)
  5. In the next window, enter your password and click OK.

What should now appear is the usual connection to your account in the Astronomy Department.

Helpful Hints

  • It is possible to set things up so that the host name "irk.berkeley.edu" and your login name already appear in the window when it is popped up. To do this:
    1. On the Edit menu, click Settings.
    2. In the left side of the resulting window, under the category Profile Settings, the item Connection should already be selected. If it is not, click on it.
    3. Enter the host name and your login name in the appropriate boxes.
    4. Click OK.
  • As is customary in Windows, you may use the Tab key to move to the next box, and the Enter key to click on the button leading to the next step.
  • The full path of the license.dat file mentioned on the software.berkeley.edu web page is: 
     C:\Program Files\SSH Communications Security\SSH Secure Shell\license.txt

Additional Information

If you want to try out a different ssh client, try PuTTY.

The authors of OpenSSH maintain a list of SSH clients for MS Windows.

Information on using SSH with the Exceed X server is available.

$LastChangedDate:: 2007-02-27#$