The first thing you need to do is actually connect to Tardis and log in. If you are reading this I am assuming you already have an account, and hence know your username and password. If for whatever reason you do not know either your username or password, consult with the friendly admins.

For shell access, Tardis only runs Secure Shell (SSH) cu. Telnet sends passwords as well as all connection data in plain text over the Internet, and is simply not sufficiently secure in the modern world. This means that to log into Tardis you will need an SSH client. On Linux you simply need

<del>ssh </del><del>username</del><del>@ssh.tardis.ed.ac.uk</del>

cu where username is - you guessed it - your username! For macs, MacOSX comes with an ssh client out of the box, so check your documentation for how to use it to connect to

<del>ssh.tardis.ed.ac.uk</del>

cu.

Windows however does not come with an SSH client built in, like it does with Telnet, and you will have to download one. I recommend PuTTY - it is powerful and easy to set up and use. It is a very small executable that doesn't need any special installation - just download from that link and run. In the window that comes up, type

ssh.tardis.ed.ac.uk

in the “host name or ip address” box, and make sure the SSH protocol is selected below. Then type a name for it in the “saved sessions” box such as “tardis” and click save - this way you can select this connection from the list in future and just double-click. Then click “open”, and type your username and password when prompted.

Congratulations, you are now logged in on your Tardis shell account! If you are new to Linux the lack of graphical interface can be quite intimidating, but don't worry - these tutorials will hold your hand and walk you through it! By the time you finish these, you should feel quite confident in using your account.

First off though, you might want to change your password from the one given to you. To do this type

passwd

and answer the prompts. Congratulations, you just ran your first program! Now click next to learn about how to run other programs under Linux, and move around the filesystem.

Next: Using Bash