"X Forwarding" is the process of displaying graphics from one X Windows system on another. It can be compared to Microsoft's Remote Desktop or a VNC session.
In this tutorial, we will assume you want to setup X forwarding from the Computer Science "pyrite" server to your workstation.
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows doesn't have a native X forwarding system so two products are required: PuTTY for ssh and Xming for X Windows support. Both of these are already installed in the Pearson labs.
1. Start PuTTY
2. Enter the server name (pyrite.cs.iastate.edu)
3. Enable compression
4. Enable X (X11) forwarding.
5. Connect and Login
6. Start Xming
You should see the icon in your system tray.
7. Launch an application from PuTTY.
Mac OS X
Like Microsoft Windows, OS X doesn't have a native X Windowing system so one will be required. As of this writing, the most popular implementation would be XQuartz. To begin, download and install XQuartz on your Mac.
After installation, just open a Terminal, type: ssh -C -X pyrite.cs.iastate.edu, and you're done.
Linux, BSD, Other UNIX Clones
Great news! X Windows (X11 or Xorg) is part of most UNIX-like operation systems. To forward graphics from you only need to start X Windows (if not already in a GUI), open a terminal and type: ssh -C -S pyrite.cs.iastate.edu. That's it.
If you run into a problem, try using: ssh -C -Y pyrite.cs.iastate.edu. The -Y option skips X11 security extensions.