Connecting to SSCC Linux Computers

Last Revised:10/8/2007

Linux was designed for remote logins and can be successfully used from anywhere in the world with just an Internet connection and an appropriate client program. This publication will discuss the various clients available.

X-Win32

X-Win32 is our suggested client program for connecting to Linux servers from Windows PCs. See Connecting to SSCC Linux Computers using X-Win32 for instructions on downloading and configuring X-Win32.

MindTerm

MindTerm is a web-based terminal program. Simply direct your Internet browser to http://hal.ssc.wisc.edu/. You will be able to log in to HAL, and from HAL you can connect to any of the other servers. This is a particularly good choice if you cannot install software on the machine you are using. However, MindTerm cannot display graphics, just text.

X11 in Mac OS X

Mac OS X includes an X11 client that can connect to the SSCC's Linux servers and display graphics. See Connecting to SSCC Linux Computers using X11 in Mac OS X.

SSCC Linux Servers

The SSCC has three public Linux servers, KITE (kite.ssc.wisc.edu), HAL (hal.ssc.wisc.edu), and FALCON (falcon.ssc.wisc.edu). KITE and HAL are similar, though KITE has more software installed (see the list) and HAL is marginally faster. FALCON runs 64-bit Linux and is primarily for jobs which require more memory than KITE or HAL (which run 32-bit Linux) can allocate. See Computing Resources at the SSCC for more details about available servers and their capabilities.