PuTTY allows you to customize the size of its terminal window. This feature can help if your terminal scrolls text too quickly or you need to save space on your screen.
Text copy and paste functionality allows for faster text input if you need to type repetitively within an editing session. This feature may come in handy if your task involves typing identical information repeatedly.
How to install PuTTY?
PuTTY is an application that enables secure connections to remote computers. It supports various connection types, including Secure Shell (SSH). With PuTTY you can easily log onto your hosting server and execute various commands; furthermore PSFTP comes equipped with its own Secure File Transfer Protocol client as well as PuTTYgen which helps generate public and private keys.
To install PuTTY, download and save the installer file from its official website. Double-clicking will launch the setup wizard; when asked for where you would like PuTTY installed on your computer, the default path being C:/Program Files/PuTTY but this can be changed if desired.
Once the installation process is complete, PuTTY can be opened by double-clicking its desktop icon or searching for it in either Start (Windows 10) or Applications folder (older versions of Windows). Additionally, it can also be launched from within terminal windows by entering “putty” at the command prompt.
PuTTY is an award-winning telnet and SSH program available for both Linux and Windows platforms, providing users with an intuitive user interface that’s simple to learn and operate. Support for popular connection types includes raw sockets and serial ports as well as public key authentication that provides additional protection than password authentication.
Configuring PuTTY
PuTTY configuration panel allows you to make various settings that will impact your connection at the other end. Most options here apply to more than one protocol; those specific for one protocol appear on separate protocol-specific configuration panels.
The Terminal Type setting enables you to change what kind of terminal PuTTY believes you are using, although this feature usually only has minimal effect in most instances; it could prove especially helpful in cases of an unstable connection.
PuTTY can send ‘keepalive’ messages at regular intervals in order to maintain an active connection. Should a remote server shut off your session unexpectedly, these keepalives will let it know you still exist and allow it to reopen it if necessary. The Seconds Between Keepalives option enables you to set the number of seconds after which PuTTY should send its messages out to maintain your session with it.
Set the ‘Default Selection Mode’. This enables you to select text by dragging your mouse in various ways – for instance, between two points the mouse dragging creates a rectangular block and all text within that box will be copied onto the clipboard.
Your options for configuring PuTTY in full-screen mode include whether or not a scrollbar should appear, visual bell settings, and when sending characters which require beeping (if enabled in Windows Control Panel). When receiving characters that should be beeped (server sent character which triggers visual bell), PuTTY flashes white for fraction of second while playing either Windows default alert sound (or whatever you’ve configured in Control Panel), or you can choose “Window Closes on Alt+F4”, so pressing Alt+F4 closes the window (with warning box display – see Section 4.9.2). You can enable visual bell settings that alerts you whenever a server sends characters that should be beep.
Connecting to a server with PuTTY
PuTTY is an invaluable tool for connecting to Linux servers from Microsoft Windows systems, offering support for network protocols like SSH, Telnet, Serial and SFTP.
PuTTY opens as a terminal window with the command line for the remote computer, where text you type into this area will be sent directly to it, with responses displayed from it in real-time. Once connected, this connection remains until either you close or execute an order on that server (typically through typing exit into your terminal window or pressing Ctrl + D). To use PuTTY effectively you need an SSH key pair; when installing PuTTYgen will generate them for you.
PuTTY can save a session configuration so you can quickly connect to any server. Simply enter the host or IP address of the system, select Saved Sessions, and name your session with descriptive terminology.
PuTTY’s Auth menu lets you set your preferred authentication method. For example, you could configure PuTTY to use Active Directory single sign-on or the GSSAPI implementation of SSH as authentication methods; corporate users may benefit from enabling this feature; otherwise most users won’t require it.
Using PuTTY
PuTTY allows you to copy text from a terminal screen (using CTRL + C) and paste it in other applications – such as word processors or spreadsheets – easily. This makes keeping notes and documentation on remote servers you are managing simple; or reuse code or commands you have written previously.
PuTTy remembers all of your connection settings for easy reconnection; just save its name to start it immediately without typing out all the host name and login information again!
Set PuTTY up so that it logs all of your sessions automatically – this can help debug problems or locate missing connections more easily. Logging options can be configured in the Session configuration panel.
At the start of any new PuTTY session, it will display a security alert to confirm that the host system you believe it to be. This is an effective measure that helps prevent attacks by malicious individuals.
PuTTY is an invaluable tool for connecting to various servers. Freely available and supporting a wide range of protocols, PuTTY was first developed back in 1997! Available for both Windows(r) and Linux(r), PuTTY is truly indispensable.