Mobaxterm is a secure remote connection tool suite that provides SSH, VNC, and RDP protocols, and much more. MobaXterm provides the ultimate toolbox for remote computing. MobaXterm is created for Windows operating systems where Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10 and Windows Servers are supported.
Whats makes the MobaXterm so great is a single applications will provide and support a lot f different protocols, standards in a single applications. With MobaXterm you can create an SSH server in the Windows with just few clicks or connect remote X11 desktop service from a Windows system easily without any problem.
Mobaxterm Versions and License
MobaXterm is normally a paid application but a free version of the MobaXterm is provided to the users in order to show its great features. MobaXterm is provided as two versions and licenses MobaXterm Home Edition and MobaXterm Professional Edition.
Home Edition
As a free version Home Edition provides useful features which may be enough for some users. In Home edition of the MobaXterm full X server and SSH server can be run on a Windows operating system. Also remote sessions like RDP, VNC, Xdmcp and remote terminals SSH, telnet, rlogin can be used with some sessions restrictions. Currently maximum 12 sessions can be run at the same time and maximum 2 SSH tunnels can be created.
- Full X server and SSH support
- Remote desktop (RDP, VNC, Xdmcp)
- Remote terminal (SSH, telnet, rlogin, Mosh)
- X11-Forwarding
- Automatic SFTP browser
- Plugins support
- Portable and installer versions
- Full documentation
- Max. 12 sessions
- Max. 2 SSH tunnels
- Max. 4 macros
- Max. 360 seconds for Tftp, Nfs and Cron
Professional Edition
Professional edition provides all great features of the MobaXterm without any restriction. Server support for SSH, VNC, RDP on the Windows operating system. There is no limit about maximum session count and network daemons. Also professional support provided in any problem. This license provides life time use without any annual license fee.
- Every feature from Home Edition +
- Customize your startup message and logo
- Modify your profile script
- Remove unwanted games, screensaver or tools
- Unlimited number of sessions
- Unlimited number of tunnels and macros
- Unlimited run time for network daemons
- Master password support
- Professional support
- Lifetime right to use
Download MobaXterm
We will prefer the home edition which is enough and free for us. Mobaxterm for Windows can be downloaded from the following link. As of writing, this post latest version of the Mobaxterm was 10.2. There is two option to download and install.
MobaXterm Portable Version
The portable version of MobaXterm does not require installation or any admin’s rights to make changes in the computer. In order to use this version just extract the downloaded zip file and click mobaxterm.exe
http://download.mobatek.net/10220170312132617/MobaXterm_Portable_v10.2.zip
MobaXterm Installer Version
Installer version requires to download installer and run with administrator privileges for installation.
http://download.mobatek.net/10220170312132617/MobaXterm_Installer_v10.2.zip
Alternatively the following link can be used to download the latest free version of the MobaXterm.
https://mobaxterm.mobatek.net/download.html
Install MobaTermX
We will install mobaxterm with the following steps
We will see the following MobaXterm installation start screen. Just click to the “Next” button for the next screen.
First we will accept the license agreement by checking “I accept the terms in the License Agreement” checkbox and click to the “Next”.
In this step we will select the installation folder where all executable files and libraries stored. The default path is good for us.
If the installation is complete succesfully we will see the following screen and click to the “Finish”.
Create Local Shell
As we know Linux jargon uses shell for command-line interfaces. We can create a shell in the local Windows system. This shell is similar to the MS-DOS command-line interface but provides more features and some eye candy. In order to start the local command line click Start local terminal button.
When the local shell is created we will see a screen like that. We can also create multiple local shells by using the + sign. Local shell provides information like current user, date and time information.
Mobaxshell provides a smooth Linux desktop tools experience.
Start Local Servers and Services
Mobaxterm have a great feature. Normally in order to create VNC, SSH, FTP in local windows system we will download related tools separately. Mobaxterm provides more of them. Click Servers from toolbar.
We will see the following servers management screen. Here we can start and stop services like TFTP, FTP, HTTP, SSH/SFTP, Telnet, NFS, VNC, Cron, Iperf without install any extra executable, library or Windows update.
We can use this screen in order to start, stop, restart and configure Mobaxterm services. The list of services Mobaxterm provide are
- Tftp
- Ftp
- Http
- Ssh
- Sftp
- Telnet
- NFS
- VNC
- Cron
Create Session New SSH, Telnet, Rsh, VNC, RDP Session
We can create new sessions and save them for easy use. We will click Sessions from toolbar like below in order to open new session creation screen.
As stated in the begging the MobaXterm supports wide range of different protocols most of them are related with Linux and Unix. We will get a window which lists all supported connections types and protocols.
- Ssh
- Telnet
- Rsh
- Xdmcp
- Rdp
- Vnc
- Ftp
- Sftp
- Serial
- File
- Shell
- Browser
- Mosh
As we can see this tool is like a swiss army knife. And we select Ssh in this case.
And we will provide parameters for SSH connection to the following configuration window. We can provide following parameter and configuration about the SSH connection or session.
Remote host is a must where the remote SSH server IP address or hostname can be provided. Both IPv4 and IPv6 can be provided but in order to use hostname the DNS server must be working properly.
Specify username provide the remote session username.
Port is the remote SSH server port number which is TCP 22 by default but can be change if i,ts required.
There are also Advanced SSH Settings , Terminal Settings , Network settings and Bookmark settings about this SSH session and connection.
