# Getting started with using lab computers ### Account Creation In order to use the lab computers, you will need your own personal account. To obtain your account, email John at jtdavis@ucdavis.edu requesting an account and he will set up an account for you. ### Accessing the computers To access the lab computers you will need an SSH client. For Mac and Linux users this is already on your computer and is called Terminal. Terminal on a Mac can be found in Finder by navigating to Applications>Utilities>Terminal. On Linux, Terminal can be found directly in Applications under the name Terminal. Windows unfortunately does not include Terminal so you will have to download a third party client. Two easy to use clients for windows are [PuTTY](http://www.putty.org/) and [Git Bash](https://git-scm.com/downloads), If you already have Git installed on your computer, you also have Git Bash installed too. I personally prefer Git Bash due to how similar it is to Terminal and because it comes with Git which is a good thing to have installed on your computer. ### Connecting to the computers The Maloof Lab uses 2 computers. * Coloma * Whitney Coloma can be accessed from anywhere, but Whitney can only be accessed from a computer currently connected to the UC Davis network or through Coloma. To connect to Coloma enter the following command in your SSH client, but replace 'username' with your username. ``` ssh username@coloma.plb.ucdavis.edu ``` Once connected to Coloma, you can access Whitney by entering ``` ssh username@whitney.plb.ucdavis.edu ```