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04 Jul 2008

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	Beginner's Guide to SSH

Solution Mention the terms SSH or Telnet to many web masters and you're liable to get blank looks in return, especially amongst those who have only been around the web for a few years. Don't worry, it doesn't require a college degree to understand it or to make use of it.

Telnet is a terminal protocol that allows for users to log into other computers via a command line interface. The command line interface itself is not pretty, but very functional. SSH is a secure version of Telnet, and consequently, this is the service we offer, free of charge.

Using SSH

Firstly, you'll need a Telnet client (software application) with SSH support. We recommend Putty, a small freeware application - http://pro.wanadoo.fr/chombier/MacSSH/SSH_info.html

Mac OS X: TelnetLauncher - http://www.pidog.com/telnetlauncher/

Orientation exercise - logging in via an SSH session

Run your SSH program.

In the "host name", type: ssh.yourdomain.com

Ensure the port is set to 22 (secure)

Click the Open button

A window should appear and after a few seconds, a prompt stating "login as" will display

Type in your hosting account username

A password prompt should then appear. Type in your hosting account password

After a few seconds, you should be given access to a command prompt

What can I do via SSH?

So you've got a black screen with some writing on it - pretty dull huh? Believe it or not, this was the way that many of us operated remotely networked computers not all that many years ago.

If you're really eager, there's not much you can't do in relation to file management using Putty over SSH. What you are seeing is the Operating System that runs on our server, FreeBSD, vaguely similar to using DOS for those of you who remember it, but using the Unix command set.

You can move files around, delete files, run diagnostics, even communicate to other hosting users via PuTTY . Of course, the environment is secure so that you can't accidentally tamper with anyone elses files or do nasty things to our server.

Let's start with something really simple. Type:

ls

This command lists the folders in your account. To look inside a folder, type:

cd (folder name)

You can then type ls again to see the contents of that folder, or drill down further by using cd commands. To return to the top level of your account, type:

cd ..

OK, that's nice - what about something that's actually useful? Let's try determining how much space each folder is occupying on your accout. Type:

cd ~ && du -h

Depending on how many folders you have in your account, the page could get pretty long, but you'll be able to quickly recognize disk space sucking folders.

SSH is also useful for killing hung email poppers instead of having to wait for them to clear on their own. If this has whetted your appetite and you wish to learn more; try our Unix command tutorials.

Article Details

Article ID:

107

Created On:

23 Jan 2008 02:58 PM