Notes on using AppGate MindTerm at CSLab

Introduction

AppGate MindTerm is a Java implementation of the SSH client. It is available free of charge for personal and non-commercial use.

We've tried to make it as easy as possible for you to run MindTerm from within your Netscape or Microsoft Internet Explorer web browser. You should be able to find most of the information you need to know in the MindTerm User's Guide.

We provide several ways for you to run MindTerm:

Starting MindTerm

To use MindTerm, you must have Java enabled in your web browser.

When you go to one of the MindTerm launch pages, you can select which host you want to connect to. If you are connecting from within the University of Toronto campus networks, you can put any hostname into the form (unless using the unsigned version of the applet); however, if you're connecting from outside U of T, you will only be able to select dvp.cs, qew.cs, or otp.cs.

Tip: If you select More Options... when connecting from outside U of T, you'll be able to connect to any host within the University, not just those three CSLab servers. You'll also be able to specify other options, such as the terminal type, number of rows and columns, and font size.

Selecting More Options... a second time will present the most powerful interface: it will allow you to completely customize MindTerm, by setting any or all of the options supported by the applet. See the MindTerm User's Guide for descriptions of all of the available options.

Tip: After you've started the applet with the "Start MindTerm SSH" button, you can save the launch page (File -> Save As...) to your local disk (or even save it under your public_html directory). When you load the saved page, MindTerm will be re-launched with the same options. This can be useful if you set a lot of options.

After you launch the applet with the "Start MindTerm SSH" button, do not close your browser window or redirect it to a different page while the applet is running. Your browser window controls the applet: MindTerm may exit or stop responding if you close the browser window or send it to a different URL.

Using the FTP to SFTP Bridge

One of the most interesting features of Mindterm 2.1 is the FTP to SFTP Bridge feature. This feature allows you to use any FTP client software to transfer files over an SSH connection.

To use this feature:

You should now be able to transfer files via FTP. MindTerm will act like an FTP server to your FTP software or web browser, but will transfer files to and from the machine you're connected to via SSH.

Note: If you're running your web browser on a Unix or Linux machine, and you're not root, you may get an error when you try to enable the bridge. This is because only root is allowed to use port numbers less than 1024. If you run into this problem, change the "Listen port" from 21 to 2121, and configure your FTP software to use port 2121 instead of the default.

For more information about this feature, see Chapter 8 of the MindTerm User's Guide.


CSLab Staff
<software@cs.toronto.edu>