**1. Create an Account:** The use of HCC resources requires an HCC account to be created. To create an account, follow the steps in [Creating an Account]({{<relref"/accounts/_index.md">}}).
**2. Open a terminal or SSH client** Most interactions with HCC clusters are done through SSH and the command line. In MacOS, Linux, and recent versions of Windows 10, there is an SSH client built-in and can be used from their [respective terminals]({{<relref"terminal.md">}}). For older versions of Windows, an application such as [PuTTY]({{<relref"putty.md">}}) or [MobaXterm]({{<relref"mobaxterm.md">}}) is needed.
**3. Connect to an HCC cluster:** From the terminal or application, use SSH to connect to one of the available clusters. In the terminal, enter `ssh <username>@crane.unl.edu` to connector to the Crane cluster, for example. With [PuTTY]({{<relref"putty.md">}}) or [MobaXterm]({{<relref"mobaxterm.md">}}), refer to their respective pages for a guide on how to connect
If you are not familiar with using command line Linux, check out these resources:
-[Basic Linux Commands]({{<relref"basic_linux_commands">}})
-[Software Carpentry Introduction to the Unix Shell Lesson](http://swcarpentry.github.io/shell-novice/)
[X11 forwarding]({{<relref"how_to_setup_x11_forwarding.md">}}) allows the use of GUI applications remotely.