Windows 9x/ME/NT/2K/XP operating systems ship with a Telnet client.
Telnet can be used to administrate a Unix machine remotely. Unfortunately,
Telnet is not the prefered protocol for administrating a Unix machine
remotely. You normally want to disable the Telnet protocol and only use SSH2
which does not ship with Windows XX. If you can access a Unix box via a secure
channel or VPN (IPSec) tunnel, then Telnet should be fine. Otherwise, it is
recommended that you use SSH2. There is a free SSH2 client for Windows named
PuTTY which should serve well for terminal access via the SSH protocol.
There are other protocols and services one may want to use to access a Unix
box such as Network File System (NFS) services and the XFree windowing
environment. For this, you must obtain 3rd party software.
If you would like to access Linux partitions from a Windows machine, there
is a program that will allow you to do this. Windows does not offer support
for the Linux filesystem natively, but with the 'explore2fs' application for
Windows, you can both read and write data to Linux filesystems and even loop
files. The explore2fs creator does not highly recommend using the write
feature because some bugs may exist. I use this application often to read
data from my ext2 filesystems when running Windows 9x.
explore2fs
Network File Server (NFS) and Services
Most sources (Microsoft) recommends you use NFS or the Network FileSystem
protocol to integrate Windows and Unix file servers. This is mostly an
attempt to downplay the Samba suite which emulates the SMB sharing system
of the Windows family. I highly recommend using Samba and network shares
due to the fact that there is no third-party Windows NFS software to
purchase and ease of maintaince once properly configured.
The Samba package can be used for a file server and a Domain Controller.
You can also use Samba just to connect to your Windows machine to share
a cdrom drive and restoration files. You can find information about
using Samba and configuring its operations here:
Samba.
Network file services can be used on Windows machines to transfer files
between Windows and Unix machines. The two main Windows based NFS products
are Omni NFS and ProNFS.
Omni NFS is a very comprehensive suite of
applications with good integration into the Windows operating system. With
Omni NFS, you can "Map Network Drives" or more precisely, "map network
filesystems", which will appear as a drive letter in the "MY COMPUTER"
directory.
The ProNFS network file server is a simpler application but also performs
well. It does not integrate in the same way that the Omni NFS application
does but offers the basic services needed to share a filesystem. Both
Omni NFS and ProNFS will minimize into the system tray and run without
getting in the way of normal productivity.
ProNFS
Omni NFS
XFree Windowing Servers
There are many X servers available for the Windows 9x/NT platforms. I have
not experimented with all of them extensively. I have used the X-Win32 Server
more than any other X server product for Windows. I found the configuration
to be rather detailed in contrast to the real X server on a Unix machine.
Much of the configuration settings are not even necessary on a Linux or BSD
machine.
X-Win32
Secure SHell (SSH) Clients
I often use the terminal application TeraTerm when working in the Windows
environment. The TeraTerm terminal has the ability to work with both the
TCP/IP protocol and COM ports directly. These features were not present
on the Windows 95 shipment of HyperTerminal. The Windows 98 and HyperTerminal
Private edition versions now offer the TCP/IP protocol. The only problem
is that you never really know what Windows version you may find yourself
working on when working at a remote site, therefore I bring along TeraTerm
on a floppy diskette.
TeraTerm can be downloaded for free and although it comes as an install
routine, one can simply copy the install directory onto a floppy diskette
and carry it with them (no installed registry dependencies). With the
flexibility of TeraTerm, there is now another add-on called TTSSH which
stands for TeraTerm Secure SHell. It can be downloaded for free and used
as an extension for TeraTerm on the TCP/IP protocol. There are other SSH
clients available both for free and for purchase but I have not had the
need to use any other product, therefore TTSSH is the only client I can
currently recommend.
If you are going to administrate a Unix system from a remote site or an
insecure network (including a corporate network which you do not
administrate), it is highly recommended that you use SSH to log into the
system. There are administrators out there who get bored and may have
installed a sniffer on the network. If you log into your system with Telnet
as a user and 'su' to root, your root password (just like your user password)
is sent across the network in clear text. If the administrator is bored
enough to install the sniffer and find your password, he is probably bored
enough to do other things.
TeraTerm
TTSSH
Unix IN Windows Links