Internet and WWW Guides

Offsite Access from CSD equipment

The Computing Services Department provides computing facilities for most of the University, including in the libraries, various departments, some halls of residence, and the 24-hour lab on Brownlow Hill. These systems are separate from those administered by the Computer Science department, require a different username and password to log on, and provide access to a separate set of files. However, it is possible to use these systems to connect to Computer Science departmental systems, and so access Computer Science resources remotely.

The necessary software is made available by Computing Services, although it does need to be explicitly installed by each user individually. This can be done by going to the Start Menu, and selecting "Install" followed by "Internet". The two relevant applications are "PuTTy" and "Core FTP Lite". Selecting either of these will install the relevant software, including putting a new icon on the desktop.

Terminal Access

The application PuTTy provides a terminal session onto the Computer Science Linux farm, allowing you to run any (non-graphical) Linux applications. This is basically equivalent to a shell window when using Exceed.

Running this application will display an initial configuration window:
PuTTY configuration window
Enter the hostname ("ssh1.csc.liv.ac.uk" or "ssh2.csc.liv.ac.uk") in the field provided, and ensure that the SSH radio button is checked. This should automatically set the value in the Port field to 22. Then click "Open".

A new terminal window will appear, and you will be prompted for your username and password, as usual:
PuTTY login window
Once you've logged in, this window will give you a command-line prompt, at which you can type any Linux command, just as if you were using the departmental systems directly.

File Transfer

The application Core FTP Lite provides a mechanism for transferring files between the Computer Science filestore and the local machine. Running this application will display a similar configuration window, where you should specify the host to connect to ("ssh1.csc.liv.ac.uk" or "ssh2.csc.liv.ac.uk"), and your username. Ensure that the box marked "SSH/SFTP" is checked, and click "Connect".

This will prompt you for your password, pause for a moment (while it retrieves a listing of your Computer Science filestore), and then display the local and Computer Science directory structures, side by side.

Note: The hostnames to use have changed