SSH Information
About SSH
SSH is a protocol used for remote terminal session and file transfer that uses cryptography to secure the communications between you and a server. It replaces the insecure telnet, FTP, rsh, and rcp protocols, that all send passwords in plain text across the Internet, or otherwise rely on weak authentication and data protection schemes.
PKR Internet's SSH Policy
PKR Internet is committed to ensuring the security of its systems and the accounts of its customers. Instead of using older, insecure programs and protocols, we require that our customers use SSH for file transfer and remote login. Telnet and FTP send passwords and other data over the Internet in the clear -- and people can and do sniff these passwords and data use them for malicious purposes.
This is less convenient than using FTP, since so many programs support FTP, but it is safer for you, safer for PKR Internet, and safer for the rest of PKR Internet's clients, to use SSH. Many good SSH and SFTP clients exist for many different platforms.
SSH Applet
We provide an SSH Applet so that you can login remotely without having to install SSH on your computer. This applet only does remote terminal access, not file transfers. This is useful for occasional use, but we recommend that you install a full-featured SSH client on your own computer for regular use.
Recommendations for Windows Users
If you are running Windows, PKR Internet recommends that you use WinSCP to transfer files beteween your computer and your web site. Download the software, and install it on each computer that has files you wish to transfer to your site.
You should set up a session for manipulating the files on your virtual host as follows:
- Put the name of your domain into the "Host Name" box
- Enter your username and password in the "User name" and "Password" boxes
- Switch to the "Directories" screen by clicking on "Shell...Directories" in the left panel
- Enter the location of your virtual server's document directory in the "Remote Directory (right panel) box, i.e./var/www/customer/www.example.com/htdocs (substitute your domain for example.com).
- Switch to the "Stored Sessions" screen by clicking on "Session...Stored Sessions" in the left panel.
- Hit the "Save..." button.
- Enter your domain name in the "Save session as:" box and hit the "OK" button.
Once you've done this, you can load your session by clicking on the "Login" button.
Collaboration
If more than one person is going to put files on your site, you need to take care to configure your SCP/SFTP client so that it sets file permissions appropriately. Files should be group-writable. If you are not using WinSCP, consult the documentation of your software to determine how to do this. If you are using WinSCP, follow these instructions in order to make sure that you and your collaborators can read and write files on your server without complications.
Set up a connection in WinSCP to the web address of your site, and once it is established, go to the "Options...Preferences...Transfer" dialog box, and check the "Set Permissions" box and child checkboxes as follows:
X Set Permissions
Owner R W
Group R W
Others R
X Add X to directories
This will ensure that files you create remain writable by everyone you work with.
Recommended SSH / SFTP / SCP Clients
Windows
- Open Source
- PuTTY (highly recommended!)
- WinSCP (A graphical SFTP/SCP client)
- Cygwin with OpenSSH (part of a very useful but large package of UNIX workalike tools)
- Commercial
- SSH Secure Shell for Workstations
- SecureCRT
Macintosh
- Open Source
- Fugu (A graphical SFTP / SCP client)
- OpenSSH (included in OS X!)
- Freeware or Shareware
- Nifty Telnet SSH
- MacSSH
- Commercial
- F-Secure SSH
- DataBeast
Linux and UNIX
- Open Source
- OpenSSH (included in most modern operating systems)
- Commercial
- http://www.ssh.com/
Other SSH Implementations
Please see The FreeSSH Project for a list of other SSH implementations.
