Configuring PuTTY

Connection and auth configuration

Host name: bitnami@<domain name> (or IP address if no domain is there), for servers using Bitnami images. Port 22.

Config -> Connection -> SSH -> Auth -> set PPK file for authentication (if you have a PEM key, as is the case when using a key from the Lightsail console, then you can convert it to PPK format in PuTTYgen).

Config -> Connection -> SSH -> Tunnels -> forward a source port of your choice (e.g. 8888, 8887, etc) to localhost:80, required to connect to phpMyAdmin from local machine. Make sure each of your saved PuTTY sessions uses a different source port to avoid accidental conflicts. You can then use localhost:<source port>, e.g. with /phpMyAdmin.

Configuring the terminal window

This isn't so much for styling, as to avoid getting confused when you (as you often will) have multiple PuTTY tabs open. Having each one titled according to the server you're connected to helps to avoid accidents.

Setting the window title

Window -> Behaviour -> Set window title to whatever you want, e.g. the name of the saved session. Useful for easily distinguishing different terminal windows.

Terminal -> Features -> Enable "Disable remote-controlled window title changing". Otherwise the remote server will overwrite your custom window title.