Logging in

In order to log in, you will need to run a client application on your own computer that uses an Internet protocol compatible with the HP-UX or Linux system. We suggest some free to low-cost options in Appendix B. We strongly encourage choosing a telnet client application that provides a scrollback buffer, from which selections can be printed with your own local printer.

We explain how to establish a terminal window to the host using suitable telnet client software on your own local computer. You first need to configure your telnet client with the fully qualified domain name (computer.department.organization.tld) or the Internet Protocol (IP) number (nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn) of the host. Most of the default settings of the client software are likely to work without change. As you make adjustments through experience, you may wish to preserve your own settings.

When you launch the telnet client and open a connection, you should see a blank window displaying, by default, about 80 fixed-size characters on each of about 24 lines. The system that you contacted should ask you to enter your particular account identification, somewhat as follows:

 Welcome to computer.department.organization.tld login:  username                        (enter your username) Password: ********                      (enter your password) more messages from the host system command-line prompt> 

Managers of systems with special concerns about security may omit the system identification messages and show you only the login and password prompts. That way, if you are not an authorized user of the system, you are denied any additional knowledge about its identity or sponsoring organization.

The command-line prompt of the system you are using may be a single character (#, >, etc.) or may instead identify the system itself (box4>, etc.), your home directory (/users/you, etc.), or perhaps your current working directory. In this book, we use just the > character in situations where HP-UX and Linux features are similar; we use H> for HP-UX and L> for Linux where differences must be shown.