IT newbie. How do I access server with a mac?

[xenocidal]

Ok, I'm very familiar with mathematical programming but not familiar at all with IT stuff.

I am trying to access an SMP server and reset(or restart?) it. I have all the login info and command lines once i get there, but other than that I have NO idea what I'm doing. On top of that, I was recommended to use PuTTY on windows or linux. Problem is I'm on OSX 10.5.8 and don't know what to use. I assume I would use x11 and/or Terminal to do the same thing, but I have no experience at all.

Would anyone mind giving me a basic tutorial on how to access and manipulate a server like this using a mac? What programs do I use, what commands, etc?

If there is a good tutorial out there I'd love to read it, just haven't found anything on my own. Thanks!

 

[plinden]

Open Terminal and type:
ssh <login>@<server>

Enter password at prompt.

You're in.

If you need or want a GUI the only one I've heard about is JellyfiSSH but I just prefer to use Terminal. I suppose if you need to keep track of multiple servers and logins, something like that is useful.

 

[xenocidal]

Is it really that simple?

So if I get this straight I type this verbatim into terminal?:

[login ID]@[server IP address]

 

[Angelo95210]

Yes it's that simple. Sometimes the server is not accessible on the standard port (22), this case just do (ie port 2222):

ssh -p2222 login@server

 

[xenocidal]

Wow, I feel like an idiot. Thank you for your help. Trying this now.

 

[Angelo95210]

If you are new to linux commands, you might need further help. Feel free to come back to this thread.

 

[outZider]

Linux commands?

 

[Angelo95210]

Linux commands?

"ssh -p2222 login@server" is a linux command. What is your point?

 

[Sky Blue]

Unix commands.

 

[plinden]

Usually referred to as "*nix commands" to embrace both Unix and Linux.

Linux isn't Unix, it's Unix-like.

Here's the Unix timeline:

OS X is based on BSD, Linux isn't based on any pre-existing Unix-like OS.

 

[Angelo95210]

You guys are nerds. Don't you have better to do?

 

[plinden]

By the way, its proper name is GNU/Linux. I let you away with using "Linux" but I see I should have called you on it earlier.

And of course we're nerds. We responded to a command line related question - what do you expect?

 

[Angelo95210]

Please don't spoil this post gentlemen. How is it going with your server xenocidal ?

 

[xenocidal]

Heh, you guys are hilarious. And thanks for your help.

I was able to connect, but unfortunately there is some other issue with the server as I cannot input any characters in the password prompt. Another admin is also having this error and the actual guy that runs the server is looking into it.

Thanks again, you were a huge help to me, regardless of how easy of a solution it was.

 

[angelwatt]

I was able to connect, but unfortunately there is some other issue with the server as I cannot input any characters in the password prompt.

The password "field" will have no user feedback until after you hit enter. No asterisks or other helpful feedback.

 

[xenocidal]

Thanks for your help everyone. Once again I come to you with a question.

First a status update. I'm now able to log into the server and reset it when it gets too laggy!

Anyway, I'm looking for a list of commands. Basically an intro to server manipulation. We're running a game on this server and the guy who owns the server is constantly out of town. I would like to be able to help out when he is unavailable. Where can I learn the language and how to browse through the server myself?

EDIT:
Ok, so I've discovered a few commands that seem useful to me:

ls -alt
more
cd

These allow me to peruse the directories and see the text based files. Now how do I download stuff off of the server onto my computer using terminal commands? This is really fun stuff so far.

 

[angelwatt]

There's a number of Unix tutorials online that you can peruse, which would be a good start. As far as downloading files, I would suggest either FTP or SFTP (secure-FTP) as your connection since there are GUI apps that let you easily drag and drop files. If you wanted to stick to Terminal though look into the scp and rsync commands.

 

[Cromulent]

You guys are nerds. Don't you have better to do?

Says the man posting in a Mac forum on the internet.

Pot meet kettle.