% This section covers the following:
%
% * Accessing Athena Remotely
%   * What is SSH?
%      * athena.dialup
%      * x.dialup and xservers
%      * scp
%      * SSH clients by platform (ssh, SecureCRT, NiftyTelnetSSH)
%   * forwarding mail
%   * Web interfaces
%      * webmail
%      * athena.dialup.mit.edu/ssh.html
%   * linux-athena installer is available

\section{Accessing Athena Remotely}

\subsection{Why would I want to login to Athena remotely?}

Presumably, you use computers outside of Athena clusters. You might want to
take advantage of some of the features Athena offers at one of these
computers, whether it be email, zephyr, files in your homedir or any
number of things. There exist a number of applications which give you
some of these features (you may, for example, check your email with Eudora,
or use a zephyr client on your home machine), but sometimes you want to
connect to Athena directly.

\subsection{What is SSH?}

SSH, or Secure Shell, is a protocol for establishing a secure connection
to a machine elsewhere on a network. It is encrypted, which means that the 
data transmitted over the network cannot be read by anyone trying to pick
up information (for example, passwords). SSH actually creates a window on
your computer which is almost equivalent to an xterm on the remote 
computer; so connecting to an Athena machine with SSH gives you the 
equivalent of the window which pops up when you first start Athena.
To understand why it woks like that, here is a bit of history. Back in the
day, there were not that many computers; rather than every person in a 
cluster  having their own computer, they had their own {\it terminal}. Each 
terminal was composed of a monitor and a keyboard, and each terminal gave
a user a different means of interacting with the same computer. When you SSH
to a server, the window you get is an emulation of such a hardware terminal;
when using that window you might as well be sitting at that computer.

\paragraph{OK, so where should I SSH to?}

Athena offers a number of dialup servers; connecting to {\tt 
athena.dialup.mit.edu} will redirect you to one of them. (They tend to be
named after famous hacks pulled at the Institute, if you're wondering where
the names come from.) 

\paragraph{SSH clients}

If you are running some variant of linux, your SSH client is called {\tt
ssh}. You shouldn't have any trouble. If you are running Windows or MacOS,
MIT offers at {\tt http://web.mit.edu/software/} SSH clients; the
recommended choices are SecureCRT for Window and NiftyTelnet SSH for MacOS.
You need MIT certificates to download these clients.

\subsection{Forwarding mail}

You may have other email accounts that you check more often than your Athena
account.  If you'd like to check all your mail from a single account, you
can set up forwarding.  All you need to do is run the command 
{\tt chpobox} to set up forwarding. Read the {\tt man chpobox} manpage 
for more details. 

\subsection{Web interfaces}

You may sometimes be in a situation in which you would want to either check
mail or connect directly to Athena without installing additional software. 
It is possible to do both from a browser.

\paragraph{Webmail}

To check your email from a browser, you will need a JavaScript-enabled,
SSL-supporting browser and a MIT CA certificate.  From the browser, go to
{\tt http://webmail.mit.edu}.  The browser will ask you about your 
certificate; click {\tt Next} until you reach {\tt Finish}.  If you do not
have a MIT CA certificate, go to {\tt http://web.mit.edu/is/help/cert} to
obtain one.

\paragraph{Browser dialup}

MindTerm is a Java applet that offers a quick dialup Athena connection.  
Although MindTerm may run on other browsers, it is recommended that you use 
Netscape 4.06 or later.  To use MindTerm, simply enter 
{\tt http://athena.dialup.mit.edu/ssh.html} into your browser, and wait for
the applet to start. 

\subsection{Debathena installer}

It is possible to convert your own machine to an Athena workstation.  The 
SIPB has created an installer which can be run on most computers supported
by Ubuntu or Debian, and supports dual booting. IS\&T and SIPB are collaborating
on the maintenance of this service. More information is available
at {\tt http://debathena.mit.edu/}.

%* Accessing Athena Remotely
%    * What is SSH?
%       * athena.dialup
%       * x.dialup and xservers
%       * scp
%       * SSH clients by platform (ssh, SecureCRT, NiftyTelnetSSH)
%    * forwarding mail
%    * Web interfaces
%       * webmail
%       * athena.dialup.mit.edu/ssh.html
%    * linux-athena installer is available
%
