I found it really hard to login to Ubuntu every single time I wanted to configure my EC2 instance. Putty provided me with easy access to my instances using Windows 7.

1. Get PuttyGen and Putty fromthis website

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

I used the 32 bit version.

2. Open Putty Key Generator and select the private key you downloaded for accessing your EC2 instance. Transfer it from Ubuntu.

3. After loading select “Save Private Key”. Give some name (*.ppk)

4. Now open Putty , in the Host type the IP address of the instance . ( I used Elastic IP’s to access my EC2 instances, hence I have my own IP from Amazon ). It’s easy just create an Elastic IP and associate it with the instance.

5.  Under Connection select SSH -> Auth. Select the private key you created in step 3.

6. Now you must be able to login to your instance from Putty.

HTH