UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi,

I'm Windows XP, and im running a PuTTY .exe file from chiark.greenend.org and i do not have the puttyTel .exe file. To obtain putty i got that address from the 'Visual Quickstart Guide' for UNIX ofcourse. After i've followed their instructions; being: "Type: 'frazz.raycomm.com' into the Host Name space", so, i've did that and it doesnt work. I really dont like to say that, but im very new,to UNIX.

The next step that they have is to "log in" which is the prompt for the Host Name or website address?

What i can do is type "google.com" or "yahoo.com" and it will work, meaing that i've typed a valid Host Name. [Little Differences] the window differs from what the figure 1.3 indicates. For instance, theres is white and has prompts for a user id. Whereas having "google.com" as a Host Name shows a black window, similar to the cmd prompt, and a green blinker. Im able to click each line of the window but unable to type.


I'd like to hurry this along so i can start my login shells with su

Thanks!
<3 C++!

So is 'frazz.raycomm.com' the server you really want to connect to? Obviously you won't be able to connect to google or yahoo servers because they don't just let anybody log in!

After you type in that host name and hit the 'Open' button, it should prompt you for a user name. When you say "it doesn't work"... what happens? Any error message?

yeah, i might have to be registered with something to be able to access the provided host name, from the book.

Do you know of some host name that i can use? For log-in, edit,essentialy "basic UNIX stuff". So i can atleast get logged on and practicing.

I think the best way would be to use a virtual machine on your own system. A simple way to do this would be to download the VMware player and one of the preconfigured operating system images they offer for download. There is a wide selection here:

Virtual Appliance Marketplace - Operating System

My School might be using one of those, although im not really sure. My Book is useless (i think) without the use of PuTTY. I would have to wait for the Instructor to reply to me before i make any downloads, from that selection at least. If most of those, in the link, are similar towards the PuTTY configuration then i might be able to compare and contrast between what the book has! Although i strongly dought that.

But to get started, can u recommend a or some tutorials that corresponde with whats simple to use for beeeginnnerrrs.

I get the impression that you don't really understand what Unix is (no offence intended!). It is an operating system, like Windows, so you (usually) need a whole separate computer to install it on. Putty is just a way to connect to a computer running a Unix-like operating system. If your school is teaching you how to use Unix, then they must have a computer somewhere running Unix that you can connect to?

The virtual appliances I linked above are a tricky way of running a virtual computer within an existing computer; that way you can install and run a different operating system on the virtual computer.

hi,
you have to update the hosts file in windows xp system. then you can type FQDN or otherwise you have to type IP address.