What Is SSH And How Can You Use It?

SSH stands for Secure Shell. You may have already seen SSH as a web hosting feature on some web hosts and wondered what it’s for.

SSH is a network protocol that allows two computer to communicate together through a secure channel. Data encryption is used to ensure security. SSH uses a public-key to authenticate the remote computer and allow the user to authenticate if necessary.

Here are some types of application for SSH:

• Logging in remotely and execute shell commands
• X11 Connections (X11 is the GUI server)
• Transferring files using SFTP

How To Login Remotely Using SSH

To connect remotely using SSH, you will need a SSH client such as PUTTY. This lite SSH client doesn’t require any installation. It consists only one executable file that you need to extract to your hard drive and execute.

Upon execution, simply enter the IP address or the hostname of the computer (ie.: server) you want to connect to and click Open.

You will then be prompted to accept the connexion key. From there, depending on the SSH server’s configuration, you might automatically be logged in or you could be prompted for a username and password.

How To Transfer Files Through SSH

To transfer files between two computers through SSH, you need a SFTP client such as WinSCP. The difference with regular FTP is that you will see the entire directory structure although you will only be able to access files and directory allowed by your credentials.

From there it’s basically the same thing as using an FTP client; you just drag and drop files from one computer to another.

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