If you are outside the Department, NetBIOS drive mapping as discussed above won't work. It is not a secure protocol, and our firewall will block it.

Regardless of the type of your computer, you can access data on both the Unix and the Windows servers through SFTP from outside the Department. SFTP works very much like FTP (File Transfer Protocol), but it is based on SSH (Secure Shell) and is fully encrypted. This is a much more secure way of accessing data, since usernames/passwords aren't sent in clear text. The names of the Unix and Windows servers are:

      unix.chemistry.ohio-state.edu    (or simply chemistry.ohio-state.edu)
      windows.chemistry.ohio-state.edu

On Windows PCs, we recommend the SFTP client included in the "SSH Secure Shell" package available for download from OIT's Software Downloads site. This SFTP client will open like a folder allowing you to double-click on and drag files, giving you the same functionality as a locally mounted share. For example, double-clicking on a Word file will download the file to your local computer, start Word, and offer to upload the modified file when you save and exit from Word.

If you use a Unix computer outside the Department, chances are it already has SSH and SFTP installed. On Linux, the Konqueror file/web browser will perform SFTP transfers in the same seamless manner as the Windows SFTP client discussed above.

If you use a Mac OSX computer, note that this Unix-based operating system comes with SSH and SFTP built-in. For an example how to use SFTP on the command line, see the FAQ SFTP from the command line in MacOSX.

For more information on what other SSH clients with SFTP are available for PCs and Macs, see The Great SSH Primer.

Note:
If you SFTP into the Windows file server, you won't be able to 'cd' up in the directory hierarchy. If, for example, you want to access the scratch directory on Windows, you need to know where it resides:

sftp windows.chemistry.ohio-state.edu
(login)
pwd 
cd /cygdrive/s/scratch/

Assuming that your username is 'juser' (Joe User), the command 'pwd' shows you that you are in the directory /cygdrive/w/files/juser. Therefore, if you want to 'cd' from scratch back into your own directory, issue the command

cd /cygdrive/w/files/juser

If you are attempting to access a group share, you will need to cd into a directory such as the following:

cd /cygdrive/g/allen_group

Replace the name of your group as appropriate. If you do not have a group share, a directory accessable by a group of people rather than a single person as your U:\ drive is, contact Chemistry Computer Support about making a new group drive.

Of course, you can use SFTP also from inside the Department.

Important note:
You can't SFTP to computers other than the chemistry Unix and Windows servers from outside the Department. Also, you can't FTP to any computer; FTP, much like NetBIOS drive mapping and TELNET, is insecure and will be blocked by our firewall. The exception is anonymous FTP to the chemistry Unix server; no passwords are being used for anonymous FTP, and therefore no encryption is required. If you need to access data on another computer that you can't put either on the Windows or Unix server, you can FTP to that computer by tunneling the FTP command port through SSH. How to do this is described in the The Great SSH Primer.