Advancing Knowledge through Technology

Using software at CHASS

  1. Software on CHASS Servers
  2. Connecting to CHASS servers
  3. Transferring files to and from CHASS servers
  4. Printing and Scanning Software
  5. Obtaining Software OUTSIDE of CHASS

Software Use at CHASS computer Labs

Connecting to CHASS servers

CHASS recommends the software program Putty for accessing your CHASS Unix account securely. Putty is a very small Secure Shell (ssh), which operates on Windows-based computers. If you would like to load a copy of Putty on your own computer, it's free for academic use.

Connection Instructions using Putty

  1. Download Putty, from here: http://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/putty/latest/x86/putty.exe. Save it to the desktop, or wherever you like.
  2. Double-click on the Putty icon to launch the program.
  3. Configure Putty as shown in the image below. Make sure to choose SSH instead of Telnet, and type the host name (origin.chass.utoronto.ca) Twice, once in the hostname or IP address field, and again in the Saved Sessions field Press the Save button to store the host address in the Saved Sessions window. The next time putty is launched, the host address will be saved, and can be opened simply by double clicking on it.
  4. The first time you connect to a host address that has not been saved in the Putty Registry, you will see a warning message asking if you'd like to save it to the registry. If you choose Yes the host address will be saved for the next time. If you choose No the host name will have to be entered manually the next time you wish to connect.
  5. Then you will be prompted for your login and password information.
  6. Once you enter these, you will see a prompt which looks like this:
    TERM = (vt100). Press Enter.
  7. Finally the UNIX prompt will appear:
    /homes/userid%
    where userid is your login name. You are now logged into your CHASS account, and can enter commands from here. For example, The most common UNIX e-mail software is called pine. To use pine, type 'pine' at this prompt:
    /homes/userid% pine (Enter)
  8. To quit UNIX, type logout at the prompt, as such:
    /homes/userid% logout (Enter)

Transferring files to and from CHASS servers

To be able to transfer files between our servers and your computer, you need a program that supports the sftp or scp protocols. For Windows users, we recommend WinSCP. The WinSCP site has detailed instructions for downloading, installing and using the software.