Remote Access

Access by ssh

Most computers are behind a firewall, and are not directly accessible from outside the university network. We provide two ssh login servers, which can be reached from outside. You can connect to one of them by entering one of the following commands in a terminal window:

• ssh username@ssh.math.uni-bielefeld.de
• ssh username@ssh2.math.uni-bielefeld.de

The first time, some security questions may be asked - answer with "yes". On these login servers, you have access to your Linux home directory and other network file systems. The above commands workson Linux, MacOS, and even on a current Windows (in a command window). On Windows, there are also specialized programs like putty available for this purpose. Once you are on a login server, you can connect to futher computers in the same way.

Password mistyped?

Beware: If you enter three times a wrong password, the IP address of your computer is temporarily blocked on the login server. It simply doesn't answer any more. Your then have three more chances, if you switch to the other login server. Or you wait for half an hour, until your address is automatically unblocked again.

File Transfer

You can use the login servers also to transfer files from your university computer to your home computer, or vice versa. With the program 'rsync', you can synchronize entire directory trees between the two computers. There are also graphical programs like 'FileZilla' or (under Windows) 'WinSCP' with a similar functionality. On the other hand, the FTP protocol is no longer supported - use SFTP instead, wich is supported by all current FTP clients.

VPN

Some services are available only from within the university network. In order to access those services from outside, you need to first connect to the university network with the help of the VPN client Cisco AnyConnect, which is available on all common operating systems. Please follwow the instructions from BITS.

Remote Desktop

If you need to run graphical programs on your office computer while being outside the university network, you can first connect to the university network by VPN (see above), and the use an x2go client to run an entire desktop session on the remote computer (choose a lightweight desktop like xfce). Programs started in this session run on your remote office computer, but display their windows locally, much like in a remote desktop session on Windows. x2go clients are available for many operation systems, also on Windows.