If you're using Linux or a Unix variant on your machine, you can take full advantage of X-Windows applications, so you're not really missing anything at all. The only limiting factor would be the speed of your connection--GUI programs take more bandwidth than text-only apps. If you have a cable modem, ADSL or a campus connection, you should be fine.
You should connect with SSH. This will do two things: give you a secure connection and properly deal with X-Windows stuff over the network.
You'll find you can't connect to the lab machines directly. You have to first connect to fraser.sfu.ca. You can do that with this command at the Unix prompt: ssh userid@fraser.sfu.ca .
You can log in here with your SFU Unix ID (same as Webmail and the lab). You will see another command prompt where you can connect to the lab machine itself: ssh machine.csil .
You should now have a secure connection to the lab, with X11 forwarding. You can test this by running Emacs or another X application and making sure it displays properly.
If you find you can't display X applications on an off-campus machine, you could have X11 forwarding turned off. Try connecting to fraser with this command:
ssh -o "ForwardX11 yes" userid@fraser.sfu.ca , then to the lab with ssh machine.csil . If things work now, good.
You can make this change permanent by adding the following lines to your ~/.ssh/config or /etc/ssh/ssh_config file:
Host *.sfu.ca ForwardX11 yes
There are other Unix machines on campus. You can use those to connect to the 9840 lab easily.
Open up a command console and connect with the command: ssh machine.csil .
You should now have a secure connection to the lab, with X11 forwarding. You can test this by running Emacs or another X application and making sure it displays properly.
If you find you can't display X applications on an off-campus machine, you could have X11 forwarding turned off. Try connecting to fraser with this command:
ssh -o "ForwardX11 yes" userid@fraser.sfu.ca , then to the lab with ssh machine.csil . If things work now, good.
You can make this change permanent by adding the following lines to your ~/.ssh/config file:
Host *.sfu.ca ForwardX11 yes
Return to the 9840 instructions or Greg's Homepage.
Copyright Greg Baker, last modified January 2002.