Remote Access

Remote Access

If you have ever tried to build anything, you know that it is next to impossible without using the right tools. When you are using a computer, it is no different–you need the right program for the file you are using. When you try to work on a file but do not use the specified program, functionality, and often times usability, is sacrificed.

But what happens you do not have the right program on your computer, but we here at NC State do? Well, simply put, you connect to our servers here Remote Access. When you remotely access a computer, you are inputting data into a computer other than the one you are physically sitting at. The other computer may be a friend’s computer five feet away, or it may be an NC State server computer miles away.

Dial Up Services

BEING DECOMMISSONED AS OF May 1st, 2007 — http://sysnews.ncsu.edu/news/45f97e6b

Computing Services supports a free dialup service to the NC State network, but because the demand for this service has increased beyond the capacities of the university’s resources, phone lines are often busy and callers may have to wait a long time to gain phone access to the system. To use the NC State Dialup Service, first make sure your computer has a modem, then create a dialup connection to 515-6320. When your computer connects with the campus dialup servers, you will be prompted to login to the system with your Unity/Eos userid and password.

Program>Accessories>Communications>Hyperterminal

Go with all the defaults — should work.

http://www2.ncsu.edu/cc-consult/Tutorials/win95casppp/

Remote Access Servers

The process by which you connect to the school’s server is different depending upon your operating system. The basic steps are listed below, but a more complete guide can be obtained via the Remote Access web page. The following is a list of servers that ECE and CPE majors have access to in order to run crucial applications from home computers.

compute.ece.ncsu.edu is a farm of multiple large Sun servers.(sample load below)

ECE compute Cluster Stats ("compute_usage")

 host (GHz/#proc/memGB)   # users   load          1min 5min 15min
-------------------------------------------------------------------
 claymore   (1.0/2/4.0):  5 users,  load average: 0.07, 0.02, 0.02
 epee       (0.9/1/1.0):  2 users,  load average: 0.00, 0.02, 0.04
 falchion   (0.9/1/1.0):  0 users,  load average: 0.00, 0.01, 0.02
 gladius    (1.0/2/4.0):  1 users,  load average: 0.02, 0.03, 0.04
 headmaster (0.5/4/4.0):  3 users,  load average: 1.01, 1.01, 1.01
 rapier     (1.0/2/4.0):  2 users,  load average: 1.00, 1.01, 1.02
 sabre      (1.0/2/4.0):  3 users,  load average: 0.01, 0.02, 0.13

grendel.ece.ncsu.edu is a farm of multiple Red Hat Linux servers. (sample load below)

ECE Grendel Cluster Stats ("grendel_usage")

 host (GHz/#proc/memGB) # users   load          1min 5min 15min
----------------------------------------------------------------
 grendel1 (2.8/2/4.0):  5 users,  load average: 11.46, 11.35, 11.29
 grendel2 (2.8/2/2.0):  5 users,  load average: 5.20, 5.57, 5.52
 grendel3 (2.8/2/2.0):  3 users,  load average: 1.03, 1.03, 0.96
 grendel4 (3.2/2/4.0):  4 users,  load average: 2.00, 2.00, 1.92
 grendel5 (3.2/2/4.0):  9 users,  load average: 1.01, 1.09, 1.08
 grendel6 (3.2/2/4.0):  6 users,  load average: 2.06, 2.04, 2.00

Alternatively, you can connect via SSH to either remote.eos.ncsu.edu or remote-linux.eos.ncsu.edu for access to Sun and Linux applications, respectively.

Connecting from Sun/Linux

Connecting from a Solaris or Linux box is not a very complicated procedure. You should first ensure that you have SSH installed on your computer by typing ssh into a terminal. If you get an error telling you file or command not found, refer to your user documentation on how to install SSH. To connect to the remote access servers here run the SSH command in your terminal. For instance, to connect to grendel.ece.ncsu.edu, in your terminal window simply type:

  ssh grendel.ece.ncsu.edu

If you are having problems running programs which require an XFree86 server, try connecting using the ‘-X’ flag along with the SSH command.

 

RDESKTOP

Connecting from Windows

Due to major design differences in operating systems, Windows users do not have native support for the technologies used to remotely access these servers. Programs like WinSCP, PuTTY, F-Secure, WolfCall, OpenAFS, and X-Win32 are required for usage of the servers. These programs can be found at the Remote Access for Windows web page. Follow the instructions for each package. Please be sure that your machine is fully patched and has current AntiVirus software installed before connecting to NC State servers.

FTP

ITD has recently updated the ftp servers on campus to be more secure, to prevent passwords from being stolen. In doing this, we moved from the old ftp protocol to the much more secure sftp protocol. Making the shift is fairly easy for most users as all you need to do is set your current software to use sftp (if it is able to do so) or change your preferred software to one that can do sftp. I’ve included some information below that mentions a few sftp clients that can easily do this for you. And of coruse, if you have any collegues who are seeing the same trouble feel free to let them know about the changes as well. As announced on sysnews at: http://sysnews.ncsu.edu/news/458c0b0f

This is a reminder that unencrypted authenticated FTP services will be discontinued effective 04Jan2007 at 3:00 pm. This service change will affect clients who login to ftp.ncsu.edu with their Unity username/password, using an unencrypted FTP client.

After this change, if you wish to make use of authenticated FTP services, you will need to connect via SFTP (secure FTP). There are SFTP clients available for all major operating systems at this point, and most applications like Dreamweaver support SFTP as well. Commonly used SFTP clients include WinSCP (for Windows) and Fugu for Mac. You can obtain a copy of either from the links below.

Dreamweaver 8 users simply need to select “Use Secure FTP” as follows… Within “Manage Sites…” click on the advanced tab, and select category “Remote Info” Check the box next to “Use Sueure FTP (SFTP)” Click “OK”

With Macromedia Contribute, in the connection wizard, select “Secure FTP (SFTP)” and use site ftp.ncsu.edu and your unity ID and password.

 

       WinSCP: http://help.ncsu.edu/helpcd/Software/winSCP.html
       Fugu: http://help.ncsu.edu/helpcd/Software/fugu.html

To make use of SFTP, you will connect to the same ftp.ncsu.edu address you have always been connecting to.

Anonymous FTP

The anonymous FTP service at ftp.ncsu.edu for uploads to the incoming directory and anonymous use such as the various mirrors we host will not be affected.

This change was announced in the following System Events Annoucement: http://sysnews.ncsu.edu/news/452ea13d

When an anonymous FTP is required, which is normally the case with non-unity accounts…

 ftp://ftp.ncsu.edu/incoming/

Files can be retrieved from either

 https://sysnews.ncsu.edu/tools-php/ftp-incoming

or

 /afs/unity/contrib/ftp/incoming/

If you have questions, please contact the NC State University Help Desk (515-HELP, help@ncsu.edu, help.ncsu.edu)

RDP

VPN

Everyone is encourage to use the new VPN service at http://vpn.ncsu.edu when connecting to campus resources from offsite.

If you have an iPhone or your operating system cannot load the SSL VPN please use the IPSEC VPN client linked below. http://comtech.ncsu.edu/networking/vpn_instructions.php

VCL

NC State’s Virtual Computing Lab (VCL) is now open to all NC State students, faculty and staff: http://vcl.ncsu.edu. The VCL provides 24/7 on-line on-demand remote access to high-end software applications and computing power. Use of applications in Windows environments was previously restricted to the College of Engineering and specific courses in other colleges. Now MatLab, Maple, SAS, SolidWorks, Linux and Solaris Realm Kits are available to all who have an Internet connection and valid Unity ID.

Software to enable remote access is also required. Windows and Macintosh computers use the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). RDP comes with Windows XP (Start-> Programs -> Accessories -> Communications); for an OS X Mac, RDP can be downloaded from http://vcl.ncsu.edu/site/categories/help.

Course based access will continue to be available. Additional software can be made available for specific course usage. However, due to vendor licensing, Engineering faculty and staff are restricted from general access all possible applications (department specific applications for example).

Any faculty or staff in need of remote access to VCL applications will need to make a request to vcl_help@ncsu.edu.

 

    Connecting from Mac OS X

    With Mac OS X, there is very little that a user has to do in order to gain full access to the remote access servers. The user will need to download and install XFree86 for Mac OS X. Once this is done, start XFree86 and through a terminal window in XFree86, type

      ssh -x hostname

    This allows you to run programs requiring XFree86 on your system.

     

    Access From Foreign Countries

    When travelling to certain countries, you may find that access to Google or other services are prohibited. Here’s some tips to stay productive.

    1. If accessing things on campus, use the campus VPN. The VPN is split tunnel, however, so things routed to internet services will not be run through. This means that all of your communications with campus will be secured, but not, say, your access to Gmail (which goes directly to their servers).
    2. You can sidestep that by then tunneling through an ssh or rdp connection to an on-campus machine — aka, use the Remote Desktop Client to connect to the Windows machine in your office and do all of your work through that connection.
    3. Alternatively, if you don’t have such a computer, you can checkout a Windows image from VCL (http://vcl.ncsu.edu) and use that.

    You should also be sure to read the campus documentation for “Securing your Mobile Device for International Travel” http://oit.ncsu.edu/security-standards-compliance/international-travel
    Get VCL go app!
    If you’re an iOS user, it’s time to make a connection to the Virtual Computing Lab (VCL) go App!

    The app allows university iOS users (iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch) one more way to access the VCL, NC State’s cloud computing system that provides 24×7 remote access to high-end lab computers and software. Available in the Apple App Store, the app has been downloaded more than 1,300 times since its release earlier this year.

    The idea to develop the iOS application for interaction with the VCL was sparked in a cloud computing class in NC State’s Department of Computer Science in the spring of 2012. The students eventually released the project to OIT Shared Services to get the application ready for production. You can download the VCL go app from the Apple App Store.