How to Access Your Files on the CS File Server

There are three ways to access your files son our file server:

Note: If you are not on a campus network, you will need to log into ISU VPN to use these.

Working on a CS Server Directly

For a quick access to your files, Linux users can connect to pyrite.cs.iastate.edu via ssh while Windows users should connect to rdp.cs.iastate.edu via Remote Desktop.

Windows users can download putty as a ssh tool.

Mac users can download Microsoft Remote Desktop from the app store.

Linux users can try either rdesktop or FreeRDP.

Connecting to our Samba server

If your computer is on the campus network, you can access your files through our Samba server: smb://my.files.iastate.edu/las/dept/coms/ds/ugrad/username. You may further map your home directory as a local drive on your Windows computer. (See details.)

Note: Samba is only for CS web files. It should not be used for day-to-day files.

Using secure FTP or SCP

To upload/download files to/from our file server you must use secure ftp (sftp) or secure copy (scp). psftp from putty.org and WinSCP from winscp.net are among the most popular secure file transfer tools.