Setup your personal computer and install necessary software
You will need a terminal to work in, ssh (secure shell) for logging in to a remote machine, scp and/or rsync for copying files between your personal computer and a remote machine, Praat and/or Wavesurfer for inspecting audio
Apple OS X
- Terminal, ssh, scp, rsync – built-in, nothing to install
- Install Praat
- Install Wavesurfer
- Install a plain text editor such as Atom
- Optionally, if you want to use ssh keys, then
- Install Homebrew
sudo brew install ssh-copy-id
Microsoft Windows
- Terminal and ssh client – install Putty
- scp client – install WinSCP
- Install a plain text editor such as Atom
- Install Praat
- Install Wavesurfer
Linux
- terminal, ssh, scp, rsync – built-in, nothing to install
- Install Praat
- Install Wavesurfer
Establish a connection to the University network
Do one of the following
-
- Default choice: Connect to the University of Edinburgh VPN then open a terminal (Mac or linux) or Putty (Windows)
- Alternative option: Open a terminal and ssh in to a DICE gateway machine (requires DICE account) such as student.ssh.inf.ed.ac.uk – this can be accessed without using the VPN, which may be faster when the VPN is in heavy use (experiment for yourself). You will be limited to workflows that either copy files to/from your personal computer, or work entirely on the lab computers.
Tip from a Windows user: “set up the VPN connection as a private network rather than public / allow filesharing by changing security settings”.
If using the VPN, note that all traffic from your computer to/from the internet now goes through the University network. That has several implications, such as
- it’s more secure than a direct connection, if on unsecured WiFi
- it will be slower than without the VPN
- avoid heavy traffic over the VPN (e.g., watching YouTube while working) because you may slow it down for everyone
- the University servers may log traffic, such as the names of any websites that you visit
Choose a lab machine and log in
Pick a random number between 02 and 55. Construct a machine name from that number. For this example, we’ll use 20 which gives a machine name of ppls-atl-0020.ppls.ed.ac.uk.
If you’re on Mac or Linux, you can quickly test if that machine is responding before attempting to log in (if not, it’s probably booted into Windows and cannot be used):
$ ping ppls-atl-0020.ppls.ed.ac.uk 64 bytes from ppls-atl-0020.ppls.ed.ac.uk (129.215.204.197): icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.014 ms 64 bytes from ppls-atl-0020.ppls.ed.ac.uk (129.215.204.197): icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.022 ms [use ctrl-C to terminate ping]
Now attempt to log in. If using Putty on Windows, follow the instructions on how to start a session – it’s similar to the following, but using the Putty interface and not the command line.
$ ssh s1234567@ppls-atl-0020.ppls.ed.ac.uk The authenticity of host 'ppls-atl-0020.ppls.ed.ac.uk (129.215.204.197)' can't be established. ECDSA key fingerprint is SHA256:o5lK7XZUoJfF2IVanCfPbfguAxg6vYIoaoH1FjyTpr8. Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)?
type “yes” and hit Enter
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes Warning: Permanently added 'ppls-atl-0020.ppls.ed.ac.uk,129.215.204.197' (ECDSA) to the list of known hosts. s1234567@ppls-atl-0020.ppls.ed.ac.uk's password: Last login: Fri Oct 18 07:33:02 2019 /usr/bin/id: cannot find name for group ID 12345 $
Your username is your UUN (e.g., s1234567) and your password is the same as you use in the lab (your Active Directory password). You are now logged in to a lab machine, which you can confirm like this:
$ hostname ppls-atl-0020.ppls.ed.ac.uk $
If you can’t log in, try another random machine. If you wish, you can check and update computer status on this spreadsheet
Optionally you can see if anyone else is using the machine, and if so whether it is busy. The machines are quite powerful, so there is no problem with multiple students using the same machine.
$ users s1234567 s1234568 s1234569 $ top [exit 'top' by pressing 'q']