School of Computing

Secure Services

Introduction to PuTTY

PuTTY is a free SSH client for Windows platforms. It is suitable for anyone wishing to find a secure replacement for telnet. The instructions below walk you through download, installation, and basic use.

Installing and Setting up PuTTY

PuTTY can be downloaded from the download link on the PuTTY homepage :- 

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/

You probably want to find the section titled "For Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000 and XP on Intel x86", then click on the "putty.exe" link. You will be prompted to save the file to disk. Click save and choose an appropriate location on your machine. PuTTY does not come with an installer, you just run the file you've downloaded.

Now run the file you've just downloaded to start PuTTY.

  • This is the main PuTTY window.
  • You will always see this when PuTTY starts up.
  • Enter the name of the machine you want to log into the "Host Name" field.
  • Select "SSH" from the Protocol selection just below that field.
  • Click on the SSH category in the left-hand list.
  • Select "2" in the "Preferred SSH protocol version".
  • If you are on a dialup or other slow link you might want to tick "Enable compression".
  • Now go back to the Session category at the top on the left-hand list.
  • In the box below "Saved Sessions" enter a name for the saved details - the hostname is fine.
  • Click Save.
  • Now to start the session you can just double click on the item in the Saved Sessions list.

Using PuTTY

Load PuTTY by clicking on the PuTTY executable. Then select the name of the session you saved in the instructions above and double-click on it.

  • The first time you connect to a host you might get the above message - this is normal.
  • Select Yes to save the key.
  • If you're really security concious you can verify the fingerprint is correct for the host you're connecting to.
  • This should only come up the first time you connect to a machine, and not in subsequent connections.
  • Enter your login at the prompt.
  • When asked, enter your password.
  • You will now be presented with a prompt similar to telnet.

You can now use the machine as you normally would.

School of Computing, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NF

Enquiries: +44 (0)1227 824180 or contact us.

Last Updated: 07/11/2011 12:46