Frequently Asked Questions - Working Remotely

Campus Resources on Learning and Teaching Remotely

• UNL's Covid-19 Response Page.
• UNL ITS Covid-19 Response Page.
• UNL - Keep Teaching

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Connecting to cse.unl.edu and other Unix servers with SSH from Windows

You can connect to the School of Computing (SoC) CSE server (cse.unl.edu) and other UNIX servers in the department using the PuTTY SSH client.

PuTTY can be downloaded from the this web site. After you have downloaded and installed PuTTY, you can use it to connect to cse.unl.edu.

Double click the PuTTY icon on the desktop or enter "putty" in the search bar to start PuTTY:

Enter "cse.unl.edu" in the Host Name (or IP address) field and hit enter.

The first time you connect to a remote host, you will receive a message stating: "The server's host key is not cached int the registry. You have to guarantee that the server is the computer you think it is." You should click "Yes" here.

Next, you will be prompted to enter a user name and password.  This is your SoC user name and password; this example uses "sac" as the user name and cse.unl.edu as the login server:

If you are prompted for a Verification code: after entering your password, examine the user name you supplied. User names that end digits (1 through 9) are not SoC user names that can be used to login to CSE and other SoC servers.

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Connecting to cse.unl.edu and other unix servers with ssh from Linux

Open a Terminal window.  The instructions that follow are for Ubuntu Linux.  Other distributions are similar.

Click on the grid button in the lower left corner.

Enter "Terminal" in the search dialog that appears.

In the window that appears when you click on the Terminal icon shown above, enter "ssh -Y username@cse.unl.edu".  Substitue your cse user name for "username" in this command.  You can omit the "-Y" flag if you do not want to use ssh X forwarding (and if you don't know what this is, you can safely omit it).  The examples below use a user name of "sac".

The first time that you connect to cse.unl.edu, or any other Linux/Unix server, a dialog like that shown above will appear.  Answer "yes" to this.

Then enter your cse password.

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Connecting to the Windows Terminal Server (Windows)

1. The Remote Desktop Client appears in different locations in the start menu in different versions of Windows. If you are able to locate the Remote Desktop Client in your start menu, launch this application. If you are unable to find the client, then either search for "mstsc.exe" in the metro tiles screen or type it into the Run dialog.
2. Once launched, on the first dialog, enter csnt-ts.unl.edu in the Computer field and click on Connect.
3. You should see a dialog to enter your credentials. Enter your School of Computing (SoC) credentials here, however your user name must be of the form CS.UNL.EDU\login_id. Where login_id would be your SoC login ID. Then, click on "OK."
4. You may be presented with a certificate warning. Go ahead and accept the self signed certificate.
5. This should connect you to the remote terminal server. The remote desktop will likely replace your local desktop, to return to the local desktop, move your mouse to the middle of the top few pixels on the screen. A control bar will slide down, allowing you to iconify our remote desktop.
6. When you are finished working on the remote desktop server, please log off the remote server and don't simply disconnect the session. Disconnecting the session still leaves it running on the remote server and continues to utilize resources.

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Accessing School of Computing systems using NoMachine - Remote X11 GUI access

NoMachine is a fast, multi protocol remote access client which allows RDP and X11 type connections to a variety of servers. We have a NX server installed on two servers; cse-linux-01.unl.edu and cse.unl.edu, which allows GUI X11 Desktop access to either of these systems. Below are steps on setting up a noMachine connection to cse-linux-01.unl.edu.

You can download and install NoMachine from https://www.nomachine.com/ 

To configure a new connection, after you launch noMachine: 

1. from the Recent connections pane,  click on ‘New’ 
2. for Protocol select NX 
3. In the Host input enter ‘cse-linux-01.unl.edu’
4. for Authentication method select Password
5. select the Don’t use proxy radio button.
6. Name your connection and finally click on Done

Once you have configured a connection to establish a connection:

1. from the Recent connections pane,  double click on the named connection
2. Enter your MyRed login credentials for the cse-linux-01.unl.edu server (username and password)
3. Double click on the Create a new virtual desktop  icon 
4. Click thru the next four dialogs that provide you an overview on using noMachine

For connection to the legacy cse.unl.edu server you must use a CSE login and password, which is separate and distinct from your MyRed login and is only used to connect to SoC legacy servers and web applications. You will not need a CSE login unless an instructor or faculty member has told you that you need one to access legacy research or instructional tools and/or data.

Tip: You can save your password, the connection type, and click on Don’t show this message again on the dialogs for one-click connection to cse.unl.edu

Note: Please log off when you are done working on cse.unl.edu. Simply disconnecting the NoMachine client will consume resources on the server and your session will be forcefully quit at somepoint, possibly resulting in loss of any unsaved data or settings.

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How do I access the VM which has been provisioned to me?

Download the VM Horizon client on to your system using the appropriate link below. Install and launch the Horizon client. Create a new connection to https://cse-vmcs-01.unl.edu. Login to the connection server with your School of Computing (SoC) credentials. When you are connected, the server will open a window that contains the virtual machine(s) that are provisioned to you. Once you log in, the virtual machine will function as a separate system running on your current one.

You can download the Vmware Horizon Clients from:

For Windows: Vmware Horizon client for Windows

For Mac: Vmware Horizon client for MAC

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Connecting to your home directory from a Mac from off campus

The simpler method to access your home directory (Z: drive) from off-campus is to use an SFTP client like Cyberduck. This will allow you to easily transfer files between your cse.unl.edu account to your local computer. While a free version of Cyberduck is available online, users are cautioned to be mindful to download Cyberduck from a reputable source, as the source code is readily available online and can thus be easily modified and made vunerable. A version is also available through the Mac App Store as a paid app. We recommend the paid app store version as it ensures the source as reputable.

To actually mount your files from an off-campus account you will need to configure a VPN client and then follow the instructions on mounting your drive from on campus. Both of these topics are discussed in other sections of this FAQ.

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Zoom Meetings for Graduate Defenses

Graduate students, in conjunction with their advisors and/or committee members, can choose the platform they wish to use for their remote defenses. Zoom is strongly recommended, as it is paid for and officially supported by the university. All UNL faculty, staff, and students have access to Zoom and can host Zoom meetings with up to 300 people, so students can set up their own Zoom meeting for their defense and provide the link to for distribution as needed. More information about Zoom is available on the ITS service catalog page for Zoom at https://its.unl.edu/services/zoom/.

After finalizing a date and time for their defense, graduate students should schedule a Zoom meeting to facilitate their defense by following these steps:

1. To schedule a Zoom meeting, users must start at https://unl.zoom.us and click the Login link in the top right corner of the page, and then log in with their MyUNL account (same credentials as Canvas).
   1. After logging in, use the blue Schedule a New Meeting button.
   2. Populate the required Topic (meeting name, e.g. John Doe's Defense), When (date/time), and Duration fields.
   3. The following settings are recommended:
      1. Registration: Do not click the Required box.
      2. Meeting ID: Generate Automatically
      3. Security: You'll be required to either enable a password or the waiting room feature, but can do both if you choose.
      4. Video: Defaulting video to off for both hosts and participants is generally recommended, as video can be turned on individually when needed.
      5. Audio: Both (this enables participants to call in from a telephone instead of listening to audio through the internet).
      6. Uncheck the "Allow participants to join anytime" option to prevent your Zoom meeting room from being used by a third party.
      7. Check the box to "Mute participants upon entry" to avoid interruption from participants speaking while their microphone is enabled.
      8. If you are expecting only UNL faculty, staff, and students to join your meeting, check the "Only authenticated users can join" to require participants to log in using their MyUNL account. Otherwise, leave this box unchecked so that anyone can join without logging in.
      9. If you want to record your presentation, click the checkbox for "Record the meeting automatically" and select "In the cloud". You'll receive an email message from Zoom after the meeting has ended, and it will include a link to your recording.
      10. Consider adding your advisor and/or another designee as an alternate host, which would allow them to assist with the Zoom meeting while you present if someone needs to be admitted in to the meeting (if you're using the waiting room feature), if another participant's microphone needs to be muted, or something similar.
2. Share the Join URL for your Zoom meeting with the School of Computing Graduate Secretary so she can include it in the announcement about your presentation.
3. Send your slide deck to committee members in advance so they can follow along from their own file if there are technical difficulties with the screen sharing functionality during your live Zoom meeting. If there is no animation or video in your slides, consider exporting them to a PDF file before sending to others.
4. On the day of your Zoom meeting (defense), make sure to log in to https://unl.zoom.us using your MyUNL credentials by clicking the Login link in the top right corner of the page before launching the meeting to ensure that you have Host priviliges to start the meeting and manage options while the meeting is in progress.
5. If you enabled automatic recording, you can pause recording after launching the Zoom meeting until you're ready to begin your presentation if you wish, but make sure remember to un-pause the record function at the appropriate time.
6. After launching the Zoom meeting, make sure to Join Audio and Start Video so participants can see and hear you.
7. Use the green Share Screen button to share your slides by sharing either a single application (e.g. PowerPoint) or your entire desktop.
8. Make sure to use the red End Meeting button once your presentation has been completed. This closes the Zoom meeting for all participants and stops the recording.

With the approval of your committee, consider recording segments of your presentation in advance using a tool like VidGrid and sending a link for the video(s) to committee members so they can view it ahead of time, saving the live Zoom meeting for questions and answers. This hybrid approach can help to mitigate technical difficulties with a live remote presentation.

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