What is Putty and How to Use it?

Posted by William Jose on March 19th, 2019

PuTTY (/ˈpʌti/)[3] is a free and open-source terminal emulator, serial console and network file transfer application. It supports several network protocols, including SCP, SSH, Telnet, rlogin, and raw socket connection. It can also connect to a serial port. The name "PuTTY" has no official meaning.[4]

PuTTY was originally written for Microsoft Windows, but it has been ported to various other operating systems. Official ports are available for some Unix-like platforms, with work-in-progress ports to Classic Mac OS and macOS, and unofficial ports have been contributed to platforms such as Symbian,[5][6] Windows Mobile and Windows Phone.

PuTTY was written and is maintained primarily by Simon Tatham.

PuTTY's basic capabilities

Like OpenSSH, PuTTY is a very versatile tool for remote access to another computer. It's probably used more often by people who want secure remote shell access to a UNIX or Linux system than for any other purpose, though that is only one of its many uses.

PuTTY is more than just an SSH client. It supports all of the following protocols:

• raw: The raw protocol is normally used for network debugging.
• rlogin: This is an unencrypted UNIX remote login protocol that uses port 513 by default.
• serial: The serial option is used to connect to a serial line. The most common purpose for this is to establish a serial connection between computers in lieu of an Ethernet or other network connection.
• SSH: As already noted, SSH is an encrypted secure remote login protocol, which uses port 22 by default.
• Telnet: Like rlogin, Telnet (telecommunication network) is an unencrypted remote login protocol. It typically uses port 23 and is available on many systems other t