AstroWiki

VNC comes with most Linux distributions and is easily set up. Mac and Windows users should download and install a VNC Viewer.

VNC for Windows is freely available from TightVNC (www.tightvnc.com) or from RealVNC (www.realvnc.com).

You will also need an SSH client. An SSH client allows you to make a secure SSH connection from your work/home machine to the LOFAR Linux machines. That is, with SSH client software running on your computer, you can open a terminal window to the remote Linux computer. For Windows users, PuTTY is a freeware SSH client. It is available from www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html. Although other SSH client software exists (e.g. SSH Secure Shell, Secure CRT), our instructions assume you are using PuTTY.

Thus, remote Window users should:

  Download and install VNC unless it is already installed. You need only install the VNC viewer.
  Download and install PuTTY unless it is already installed on your machine.

For Mac users, Chicken of the VNC is a good VNC client and is available from sourceforge.net/projects/cotvnc.

Download the Chicken of the VNC disk image file (dmg) and then double-click it to mount it on your desktop. Then drag the Chicken of the VNC icon to your Mac's Applications folder.

Mac OS X includes an SSH client. You can open a terminal by launching either Terminal or X11, both of which are in your Mac's Applications > Utilities folder.