From Waisman Brain Imaging Wiki

What is SecureCRT and why do I care?

SecureCRT is a way to connect from your PC to the big lab servers (for example, LAN104 and LAN106 - LAN109 at Brogden or tezpur and ancho at Keck), and do work on them as if you were sitting right in front of them. It uses an encrypted system for sending the data back and forth between your PC and the server called SSH. This encryption is similar to that used for secure transactions when you make purchases over the web, and protects your password (and other sensitive data) from hackers. SecureCRT also supports the X11 system (with a little help from other applications like Xming or X-Win32), so that you can run graphical applications from the server like MATLAB, SAS, or AFNI. (To use X11, be sure to not use a "Quick Connect" and be sure to follow step 10 in Adding Sessions, or it won't work!)

Note that if you want to connect to the lab servers from home and don't have SecureCRT installed on your home PC or laptop, you might consider downloading and installing PuTTY (http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/). It is similar to SecureCRT, but doesn't have as many features. However, it is free, and works quite well. If you have a NetID and password, and don't mind answering a few questions, you can log into the DoIT server at SecureCRT Login (https://techstore.doit.wisc.edu/securecrt/securecrt_login.asp) and download SecureCRT for home use as well. And get WiscVPN (http://www.doit.wisc.edu/network/vpn/) while you're there, too!

Note that OS X Macintoshes come with SSH built-in, and an excellent X11 system is available for free from Apple. Talk to Alanna, Aaron or Adrian if you're interested in installing this. It is quite easy to do, but there isn't much documentation covering it.

Using SecureCRT

Adding Sessions

1. Open SecureCRT (icon may be on desktop, or listed in Program Files under the Start menu). If it is the first time you’ve opened it, you will get a window asking you to choose the default directory. Generally, the one it has listed is fine and you can just hit “OK.”
2. You may get a message stating that SecureCRT is not your default telnet application. Please say “Yes” to this message.
3. It may open with a Quick Connect window; if so, please close this window by either canceling or clicking on the red X in the right-hand top corner.
   NOTE: Quick Connect does not support X11 connections, so it isn't very useful for us.
4. Select the first button on the menu bar – “Connect.” This will open the list of sessions, which may be blank if you have not previously set any up.
5. Click on the “New Session” button on the menu bar (see figure 1).
6. In the “Name” area, please name it something that will help you remember which server it is connecting to – “Lan104” is fine, for instance.
7. Leave “Protocol” as ssh2.
8. In the “Host Name” line, enter the full name of the server you wish to connect to – lan104.psych.wisc.edu or tezpur.keck.waisman.wisc.edu, for example. If you are planning to add all the servers at Brogden, you may copy this host name and modify it for each additional session (lan105, lan106, lan107, lan108). (See figure 2.)
9. Leave user name blank here. Saving user names and passwords is not a good idea on shared computers.
10. In the list on the left-hand side, select X11 (under Port Forwarding below Connection). Click the box in front of “Forward X11 Packets.”
11. Hit “OK.”
12. You should be back to the original screen, with the new connection now shown. You may add as many server connections as you want by proceeding through Steps 5-11 above.

Connecting to a Session

1. Open SecureCRT.
2. Select one of the sessions in your Connect window and select the “Connect” button.
3. You may or may not get a ZoneAlarm security alert – if you do, please select the “Remember this setting” option and then the “Allow” button for as many alerts as pop up.
4. You will probably get a dialog box about the “Host Key”. Adrian, John and Alanna tend to select “Accept Once” (which means you have to select that each time you log in); most others select “Accept and Save” – you decide.
5. Enter your user name, select OK
6. Enter your password, select OK – do not save user names and passwords if you are using a shared lab computer!
7. You should get a welcome screen (see figure 3).
8. Be sure to close the session by exiting SecureCRT.

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FAQ: SecureCRT won't save sessions under normal user account:

1. Go to Options->Global Options..., reconfigure the path under "General" and "SSH Host Keys" tab to your profile folder(double underline showed in figure4)