You cannot FTP to Krypton.fhda.edu

This is the answer to one of the most common questions instructors receive when new students initially interact with our UNIX systems. A complimentary answer we also have to provide is "You cannot view losaltos.fhda.edu in a web browser."

These problems arise because UNIX is a sophisticated and powerful operating system. Most of us use Macs or PCs and have little or no understanding of what the UNIX operating system is or how to deal with it as a student in a web development course. The good news is that its not really all that complicated and you don't need to know too much technically to be successful in our UNIX environment.

"But I just want to upload my Flash file so it plays properly... argh!!"

Off course you do... but the reality is, that if you are going into the web development field, you will have to master the basics of connecting to and uploading files to a UNIX web server.

This page is designed to give a simplistic and non-technical overview of what machines comprise our UNIX systems and how you as a student can interact with them. It really does help to have some understanding of what/who you are dealing with :)

So, what is krypton?

Sitting in a cool dark room in the CTIS facilities is an IBM-PC computer running some version of the UNIX operating system. That PC has been given the official name of krypton. To the DNS servers controlling Internet traffic around the world, this machine is known by its official name of krypton.fhda.edu and can be reached by typing http://krypton.fhda.edu into your web browser.

Notice that the address does not include a WWW. Many web servers use this as a naming convention, but ours does not. Using WWW with our server will not work.

Our UNIX administrators installed onto krypton a software program named Apache. Apache is the worlds most popular software for turning a computer into a computer that can serve up web pages - a web server.

So it turns out it is really simple. Krypton is simply a computer with a published name and server software installed which turns it into a web server. The staff takes special steps to secure this machine as krypton's sole job is to just sit there and wait for someone to type in krypton.fhda.edu into their web browser. When this happens, Apache dutifully returns the resources requested... a web page with text, graphics, media, etc.

Here are some things that you need to know when dealing with krypton:

• You cannot log into the machine named krypton. Again, its sole job is to deliver web pages stored on our systems. You do not have an account on this machine, and if you try to log into it you will be turned away... krypton does not know who you are!
   
• You cannot FTP your files to krypton. Krypton is a web server, not a file-server. And you do not have an account or access to this machine in any event.
   
• The ONLY way to communicate with krypton is to open a web browser and type in the url of krypton.fhda.edu into the browser. Krypton's sole job is to deliver web pages and that is the only thing it knows how to do!

What's the Difference between krypton and losaltos.fhda.edu ?

If you've read any of the instructions for uploading files or communicating remotely with our UNIX systems you've no doubt seen the references to losaltos.fhda.edu in those instructions. Is losaltos another machine or what, this is confusing!

Well it turns out that we have a number of different machines running UNIX in our labs. Each machine(s) serves a different purpose. Krypton's function is that of a web server.

We've got four other machines that differ only in that they are not web servers. They are simply machines in our labs, which have been assigned their own Internet names and are accessible by students from outside the campus. You can connect to losaltos.fhda.edu remotely and issue UNIX commands and complete your UNIX or programming type assignments.

Web students can connect to these four machines using an SFTP program which allows you to upload/download files from your home to our UNIX machines.

The four machines have the following addresses:

losaltos.fhda.edu
kyoto.fhda.edu
paris.fhda.edu
london.fhda.edu

It really does not matter which of these computers you connect to. If you connect to losaltos.fhda.edu and upload a file, and then later connect to paris.fhda.edu you will see the same set of files. This is handled transparently by the configuration of the UNIX machines and is not something you need to concern yourself with.

Here are some things to consider when trying to upload files to our systems:

• The ONLY machines that you can connect to as a student are the four addresses listed above.
   
  You do not have an account on krypton so you cannot upload files to that machine. If you attempt to do so, you will rebuffed... krypton has no idea who you are!
   
  Use any of the four addresses above to connect with your SFTP client software. You should be able to connect, be welcomed, and can upload your files.
   
• It really does not matter which of the four machines you connect to, they all act as if they are the same machine... at least in terms of uploading files, and that is all you need to concern yourself with.
   
• If for some reason you cannot connect to your favorite machine like paris.fhda.edu, consider that its possible that machine is not currently running. Try one of the other four addresses. If you cannot reach any of them then it is likely that there is a network outage which is affecting the Foothill campus... try again later.
   
• If you are using a web browser, the only machine you will be able to connect to is krypton... because IT is a web server! The four other machines listed above enable you to connect and upload files, but they are NOT web servers and cannot be accessed via a web browser. Instead, use a SFTP program to upload files or a SSH program to connect remotely.

Top of page August 10, 2010