PuTTY review

Andrew Spode Miller

We review Putty, an SSH client for Symbian

Published on Jul 13, 2009

If the idea of using a terminal / command line interface scares the hell out of you, then not only will you have never heard of Putty, but you will probably never have a need for it.

To everyone else, it's well known as the tool to turn to for SSH and Telnet connections – essential for Linux users and server admins. What you might not be aware of is that this popular tool is also available on the Symbian platform and recently had an upgrade to work specifically with the touch interface of the 5th generation N97 and 5800 XM.

The Symbian version of Putty will only give you SSH access, which is a little disappointing as Telnet is quite useful for testing services such as SMTP or IMAP. You also won't get any port forwarding or X11 handling.

Just like the desktop version, you can define multiple profiles with all your settings – server address, port number and you'll also find support for compression. You can change your fonts and schemes too – especially important if you're a white on black man instead of the default black on white.

Once you've connected to your client, you'll see the terminal you are used to seeing. The keyboard on the N97 makes light work of getting things done, but there are a few things missing. Semi-opaque buttons are present at the top of the screen giving you access to the important keys missing from the keyboard. Tab is used for auto completion in Linux, pipe is essential for any serious CLI user and of course the CTRL and ALT keys are missing too.

To get rid of this menu, should they be getting in the way, simply swipe the screen either left or right and it will toggle. Similarly, swiping up or down will send the Page Up/Down keys respectively which is a nice touch.

Occasionally there will be other keys you might need – such as Escape. Double tap the screen and up comes a grid of commonly required keys – easy!

Copy and Paste has also been implemented particularly well. Press the select button and you can drag your finger around to select the text you want. This can be a bit tricky when selecting text that is at the very edge of the screen – but you can also use the D-Pad to be more accurate. Then it's as simple as copy and paste.

Holding down a press on the screen brings up another menu to leave full screen and adjust other settings such as the terminal colour.

This is truly superb implementation of an SSH terminal, taking full advantage of everything that the touch screen offers whilst being fully customizable. This is an absolutely invaluable tool to anyone in 24/7 technical support, where you can be repairing things from a field in Glasgow without a hitch.