Need to use SSH on Windows? Go here.
SSH or Secure Shell is a network protocol that allows data to be exchanged using a secure channel between two networked devices. It’s used primarily on Linux and Unix based systems to access shell accounts, SSH was designed as a replacement for Telnet and other insecure remote shells, which send information, notably passwords, in plain text, leaving them open for interception. The encryption used by SSH provides confidentiality and integrity of data over an insecure network, such as the Internet.
In plain English? SSH allows you to give and receive data securely over the internet to other computers or servers. A majority of servers are Unix. This is actually one world where windows has not (and I can comfortably say, will never) taken over. Because Mac OS X nowadays is based on Darwin and chunks of existing open source software from a large number of sources like BSD, GNU, Mach, and even Linux. There is an option to use something called “Terminal” that will allow you to SSH into a server without having to add any third party software.
I’ll briefly discuss the items needed to log into a remote server using SSH.
First thing is you want to make sure you have SSH enabled on your server. If you contact your hosts help desk. You’ll need to pry the following information out of them:
- If SSH is enabled on your server. If not, ask that they enable it
- What domain you will use
- What port you will use
- What your username/password will be. *Most likely this username and password will be the same as yout FTP credentials
Once you get this information, you’ll need an SSH client to get into your server.
If you are on a Mac, you can use Terminal which is already installed on your computer and located at: Applications>Utilities>Terminal.
NOTE:
If you use a distribution of Linux or Unix. You can follow these directions as well because the simularities are almost identical. There may be small differences, but chances are if your using Linux, you’re not reading this article =]
When you launch Terminal, you’ll see a window that looks like this:
NOTE ABOUT HOSTNAMES:
Most likely your hosting provider will provide you only with the Hostname or IP to login to your sever via SSH. It should look something like this:name.domain.comor this
77.124.52.169Both of these things do the same thing. They point Terminal at a specific server on the internet.
After opening Terminal. You will see two lines of text. The first line show previous login information; the second line shows the details of your computer followed by a a dollar sign “$”
NOTE:
The dollar sign doesn’t mean that your Mac is expensive (even though they are). It means Terminal is ready to receive commands from you. From this point on, I will refer to the dollar sign as the “prompt”.
First thing you want to enter after the prompt is:
sshThis will tell Terminal you want to SSH into a specific location on the internet or network.
IMPORTANT:
You don’t want to press enter after entering this. You still have some more things to do
Then you need to enter your username. Followed by an “@” symbol, then the Hostname or IP. So the line of text you entered should look something like this:
1 2 3 | ssh username@doin.hostname.com or ssh username@77.124.52.169 |
If your host provide you with a “port” number. Enter that in the same line of text like so:
1 | ssh username@doin.hostname.com -p5527 |
After you’ve entered all the credentials, press the return key.
Now you will be asked to provide the password for the account:
Type in your username and press enter. Then you will be asked to enter that your password:
NOTE:
Even though you don’t see the cursor moving. When you press a key, it is registered by Terminal. This is a security feature that is not specific to Terminal, but ALL SSH clients.
After you successfully enter your password. You have officially SSH’d into a server!
Now it’s time to learn a few simple Linux commands and you will be able to do things that would take you hours in FTP in literally under a minute.
Stay tuned..