Using Cygwin to connect to your virtual machines

If your host machine is either a Linux or Mac machine, you'll simply open the host's Terminal and use the tools that are already there to connect to the virtual machine. But if you're running a Windows machine, you'll need some sort of Bash shell and its networking tools. Windows 10 Pro now comes with a Bash shell that's been provided by the Ubuntu folk, and you can use that if you desire. But if you don't have Windows 10 Pro, or if you prefer to use something else, you might consider Cygwin.

Cygwin, a project of the Red Hat company, is a free open source Bash shell that's built for Windows. It's free of charge and easy to install.