Tech for Personal Use: How to Set Up PuTTY to Connect to the Academic Server

Tags PuTTY Server

To set up PuTTY, you must first download the putty.exe file.

Step 1

Double-Click on the putty.exe file that you saved to your computer. Fill the information as follows:

  • Host Name (or IP address): academic.pgcc.edu
  • Port: make sure ‘22’ is entered
  • Connection type: make sure SSH is selected

PuTTY Configuration window

Note: You can also save the above session information by typing a name in the “Saved Sessions” box and click on the “Save” button.

Step 2

Click on the “Open” button to connect to the Academic Web server. The first time that you connect to the Academic server on your computer, you will probably receive the following security alert message:

PuTTY Security Alert Window

If you receive this security alert box, click “Yes” to continue.

Step 3

At the “login as” prompt, type your website user ID (all lower case). Your website username is not the same as your Novell username.

PuTTY Log In Screen

Step 4

Once connected to the Academic server, you will see the following window:

Log In Screen: Secure Connection

Enter your password. If you receive an “Access denied” prompt, this means that the server is not accepting your user ID and/or password. Please check your user ID and password and try again.

Step 5

If you need to change your password, continue to the next section, “Changing your user password using PuTTY”. Otherwise, if you are done with your PuTTY session, type “logout” at the user prompt and hit the ENTER key on your keyboard.

Do not be alarmed that you will not see what you type. Just carefully type your current password. Unix/Linux server is case sensitive, so please be sure to pay attention to uppercase and lowercase letters.

Changing Your User Password Using PuTTY

Step 1

Once you have logged into the Academic server via PuTTY, at the user prompt, type in the command “passwd”.PuTTY Command Prompt

Step 2

  • When prompted by PuTTY, type in your current password and press the ENTER key.
  • PuTTY will prompt you to enter your new password. Type in your new password and press the ENTER key.
  • PuTTY will then prompt you to re-enter the new password you just entered for verification purposes. Re-type your newly selected password and press the ENTER key.

Step 3

Once you have successfully updated your password, if you are done with your session, at the user prompt, type “logout” and press the ENTER key to end the session.

Do not be alarmed that you will not see what you type. Just carefully type your current password. Unix/Linux server is case sensitive, so please be sure to pay attention to uppercase and lowercase letters.

You might also get a message like the following:

“Your new password needs to be a least 6 characters long or your password is based on a dictionary word. Please make the necessary changes.”

Make sure you use a proper password (6 characters long and not a dictionary word).

Print Article