Systems

What kind of operating systems are available in the labs and on the servers?

There are two classes of operating systems in general use by the department: Windows XP and Unix.

* The computers in the B207 & B238(ME Majors), B230 & B255(Chem/Env Majors) and B265 (Bio Majors) all boot Windows XP.
* Almost all servers are running Unix.

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How do I login and logout from a UNIX prompt?

Just type in your login name and password where prompted. For security reasons, your password won't be echoed when you type it.

To log out, type "exit" or "logout". When the login prompt appears again, you know you have been logged out.

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How do I login and logout from an X-Terminal?

Again, type your login and password in the fields provided in the login dialog. Again, your password won't be echoed.

When you're done, exit your X session by selecting "quit", "shutdown", or "exit" from your X popup menu. When the login dialog appears again, you have been logged out.

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How do I login and logout from Windows XP?

When you sit down at the machine, there should be a login dialog where you can enter your login name and password.

To log out, go to the "Start" menu and select "Shut Down..." When the shutdown dialog box appears, select the appropriate option.

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What is a home directory?

Your home directory is your own private area on one of the network servers where you keep all of your files. When you log in under Windows, it's automatically mounted as drive "H:".

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How can I log into the computers from home using a modem?

The College does not provide outside lines for dial-in access.

Another solution is to sign up for Internet access through a local ISP such as Earthlink. These services will provide you with PPP access so that you can access the Internet directly over your modem. You can then use an SSH program on your computer to connect to the department's servers.

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How can I access my account from home?

For Windows Users:

To use SSH from a Windows machine, please use the freely available program PUTTY. Simply DOWNLOAD PUTTY HERE and save it to your desktop. Then, once downloaded, double click on the file putty.exe that was downloaded to your desktop, type in the hostname (gauss.engr.ucr.edu), change the protocol to "SSH," and be sure that the port is 22. In the left menu, click on "SSH," then under "Protocol options," go under "Preferred SSH protocol version" and click on 2. Go back to the "Session" category, in the left menu, type a name in the box "STORED SESSIONS" click "SAVE" (this will only need to be done the first time you use putty), and click "OPEN." Subsequent use of putty to connect to this same server can be done by double-clicking the stored session that now appears in the "Stored Sessions" box.

If you have problems connecting to gauss.engr.ucr.edu, connect to your UCR student account, and then connect to gauss using the following command:

ssh your_user_name@gauss.engr.ucr.edu

For Unix Users:

To use ssh on a Unix system, download the SSH source code and compile/install it yourself. There are two major versions, SSH and SSH2. Gauss currently has SSH2 and SSH1 installed, but SSH1 will soon be removed so download SSH2. Once you have it downloaded:

1. Unpack it with 'tar -xvzf ssh-1.2.27.tar.gz'
2. cd ssh-1.2.27
3. ./configure
4. make
5. make install

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How can I transfer my files from home?

For Windows Users:

To transfer your files on a Windows machine, please use the freely available program SSH SFTP. Click here to download SSH SFTP and save it to your desktop. Once downloaded, double click on the file SSHSecureShellClient.exe that was downloaded to your desktop to setup the program. Once setup is over, run the "SSH Secure File Transfer Client" and type in the hostname (gauss.engr.ucr.edu), your username, and click 'Connect'. You will be prompted for your password, and then you will be given access to your files.

For Unix Users:

To use scp on a Unix system:

A. To transfer one file:

1. Go into the directory containing the file.
2. Type "scp [the filename] [your login]@gauss.engr.ucr.edu:[the directory you wish to send it to]"
ex:

scp temp.doc jdoe@gauss.engr.ucr.edu:/home/whatever/jdoe/

B. To transfer an entire folder:

1. Go into the directory containing the folder u wish to transfer.
2. Type "scp -r [name of the folder]/ [your login]@gauss.engr.ucr.edu:[the directory you wish to send it to]"
ex:

scp -r projects/ jdoe@gauss.engr.ucr.edu:/home/whatever/jdoe/