Connectivity and New Account Creation

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1. You can connect to the Grex server and create a new account, or login with your existing loginID and password, using the following programs:
   • Internet Browser - easy, secure, with limited access to Grex services unless you have Java (JRE) installed
   • SSH - easy, secure, complete; may require extra configuration
2. After UNIX account creation you need to validate your account - this is an extra step designed to prevent abuse. Type: validate and follow the instructions provided.

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Internet Web Browser Access

Use our web based account creation link to create a new account. Note: our web based account creation software is not ready at this time. The link will take you to instructions for using ssh to set up an account.

You can access the Grex BBS by clicking on Backtalk - Agora is our frequently read conference (forum).

If you want complete access to Grex using a web browser you need to install Java (JRE - Java Runtime Environment). You can then access the Grex Unix shell by clicking on the MindTerm applet link within your browser - a Java applet (program) called MindTerm is loaded by your web browser. This Java-applet is used by your browser to connect to our Grex server's SSH port. If it doesn't work, read our troubleshooting Grex connectivity page.

SSH Access

SSH is a program for making secure connections to remote, terminal-oriented services. It encrypts the data sent between it and a remote server (such as Grex), and is capable of authenticating users using public key encryption. Using SSH in one form or another is the only way to get interactive access to Grex's shell services.

• Windows 2000, Windows XP
  1. A default Windows installation does not come with a free SSH client program - a free program that does SSH can be found on Simon Tatham's PuTTY page. Download this to your Desktop and double click it to run.
  2. Host Name (or IP address) is grex.org. Click: Open to connect to Grex.
• Unix, Linux, and Mac OS X

  At a shell prompt, type: ssh newuser@grex.org
  ssh jbrown@grex.org

• Sample SSH output

          localhost> ssh newuser@grex.org
          The authenticity of host 'grex.org (216.86.77.194)' can't be established.
          RSA key fingerprint is 75:cc:a7:b5:b8:6a:6a:cc:a6:71:20:8d:ed:df:62:72.
          Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)?
        

What you are seeing is a sample of the Grex server's SSH key fingerprint. Make sure what you see within your SSH window matches our current server-fingerprint.

Type yes and press Enter, if it matches. You will then be lead to SSH based, new user registration process. Follow the instructions to create your new account.

Telnet Access

• Telnet usage has been removed from Grex as of October 10, 2011 due to security issues. We suggest you use SSH (see above).