Accessing X Applications from Offsite Windows PC's

To access X applications on internal JLab systems from offsite PC's running windows requires that you have an X server and a Secure Shell client running on the PC that you will be using to access JLab. All internet connectivity from offsite to internal systems is provided via JLab Unix login servers.

Installing an X server

The Computer Center provides the NCD PC-Xware application for JLab use. Instructions for the configuration and installation of PC-Xware for supported Windows versions can be found from the Supported Windows Applications section on the Windows web pages which are only available for onsite viewing due to JLab site licensing. Another common Windows X server application that can be used is Hummingbird Exceed, however the Computer Center does not provide this package and users are responsible for obtaining their copy and its configuration.

Installing a Secure Shell Client

The supported and available Secure Shell client provided for JLab users is PuTTY. JLab Windows users should download and configure PuTTY as directed from the PuTTY web pages. All information regarding the configuration of PuTTY to access JLab systems can be found on this webpage

Connecting to JLab

Once an X server and Secure Shell client have been installed and configured on the offsite Windows PC the basic process to connect to JLab and launch X applications locally is as follows:

Connect to your ISP (This could be the JLab dial-in server)
Start your X server application
Start the Secure Shell client (PuTTY)
Connect to one of the offsite Unix login servers
From the login server connect to internal Unix system using ssh
Launch desired X application, which should display on your local Windows desktop if all has been configured correctly

This document is maintained by {helpdesk@jlab.org}