Remote on ISG Blog · D-MATH

Softphone / ETH phone

Fri, 20 Jun 2025 15:17:24 +0200

The softphone can be used in the home office, at the shared desk or for mobile working. A softphone is software that is installed on a PC, laptop or mobile device to operate telephony as a software solution. This means that conventional number telephony can also be used regardless of location, for example from the home office or at shared desks, and is no longer tied to a desk phone.

Access a remote linux desktop with ThinLinc

Fri, 16 May 2025 16:21:50 +0200

We are using a solution based on ThinLinc from Cendio to easily connect to a remote Linux desktop inside the D-MATH network from anywhere.

Requirements

You need

either a Wi-Fi connection at ETH, as described here (with the “math-guest” profile),
or a working VPN connection to the D-MATH network, as described here (with the “math-guest” profile)

and

a ThinLinc client for your operating system (external link) Note: on our managed computers, the ThinLinc client is already installed

If you do not want or cannot install the ThinLinc client on your (private) device, you may try to use it via browser at this URL:https://tango.math.ethz.ch (the correct Wi-Fi or the VPN connection is still needed!). This solution may also work on a tablet.

SSH Access to D-MATH network from outside

Mon, 05 May 2025 11:43:21 +0200

If you are using the D-MATH WiFi or VPN configuration (with “math-guest”), you are already in the D-MATH network and can reach all important hosts directly (e.g., ssh host -l <eth-username>).

If you are using the default ETH VPN (i.e. connected with “staff-net” or “student-net”) you can simply access the D-MATH network (e.g. our central clients) with SSH via pytharski just by entering the following command in a terminal:

ssh pytharski.math.ethz.ch -l <eth-username>
# or just
ssh pytharski -l <eth-username>
# and if your local username is the same as the ETH one, then
ssh pytharski

The first time you log in to pytharski you also have to accept the host key (please verify the fingerprint that you get with this list). Then at the “Hostname or command”-prompt enter for example “ada-29” and you are in:

Home office for D-MATH members

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 08:39:52 +0100

We explain below what you have to do to be able to work efficiently from your home, for instance how to set up a secure network connection to the ETH Zurich using VPN (eg. to access ETHIS, electronic resources like journals, file shares, …), how to access your e-mails, your files and a virtual linux desktop.

VPN – Secure Network Connection to the ETH

You can set up a secure network connection to the ETH Zurich by connecting to the VPN server using a VPN client. You find all information here:

Secure File Transfer (SFTP) to the D-MATH network

Wed, 17 May 2023 10:42:54 +0200

SFTP can be used on all platforms, incl. Linux, Windows and Mac to transfer files to / from the D-MATH fileservers.

Filezilla for all platforms

Open the application filezilla, if you need to install it you can download it from:

https://filezilla-project.org/

With the following information you can connect

Host: sftp://sftpmath.math.ethz.ch
Username: [your username]
Password: [D-MATH password]

Click on the button “Quickconnect”
You may need to trust the ssh host key of the server to be able to connect

Using “screen” to run simulations on a remote host

Wed, 17 May 2023 10:34:15 +0200

The suggested way to run your simulations on a remote host (let’s say for instance on ada-18) is to use screen, which allows you to:

use multiple shell windows from a single SSH session
keep a shell active even through network disruptions
disconnect and re-connect to a shell session from multiple locations
run a long running process without maintaining an active shell session.

Start screen

Enter in a terminal

screen

or – better – start a screen session by giving it a name (for instance “sim1”):