SSH: Secure Shell Access

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Sometimes too much control can do more harm than good or why you really don’t need root.
SSH (Secure Shell Access)
What is SSH and why would you want it? SSH stands for Secure Shell or Secure Shell Access. SSH is basically a non-graphical (for the most part) connection between two computers. Secure Shell Access is the more secure form of Shell Access made popular by Unix computers. In the past when someone wanted to access files from one computer to another they would have used a connection known as a shell connection. So by using this shell connection on one computer you could see exactly what was happening on the other computer. One computer was just a shell of the other. Telnet is a shell access between computers. As computers became more and more advanced so did the methods of accessing them. And as Linux computers once came from Unix (at least the main concepts) the idea of connecting one computer to transferred.

As graphical interfaces among computers grew you would expect that a command line non-graphical connection to be left behind. This is not so with SSH because while graphics make it easy to work on a computer the connections between two computers must be very fast in order for a graphical connection to work well. Because not all connections are very fast SSH maintains some popularity.

SSH is the equivalent of working in DOS. You only get words and lines. And generally you have to know the unique commands to the SSH because there is more than one version. So why would you want to use it? It depends-if you are comfortable in working in text-based screens and you know the SSH commands you can run one computer from another pretty easy. You could literally remotely control a computer from another place in the world. If it sounds so good, why doesn’t everyone have access like this?

The main reason most web hosting companies don’t allow SSH connections is that while they may seem secure SSH connections leave a server open to security issues. And basically you can run one computer from another–this is highly desirable for a hacker. Recently there was a very large security breach which allowed hackers to take control of servers if the servers allowed SSH connections. Further, there are methods to intercept SSH connections and allow another person into your files or the server if using SSH. And every SSH connection allowed is a potential access hole for a hacker. If you have 300 people using SSH on a server you are potentially allowing 300 more entry points for hackers. Therefore, for security reasons most web hosting companies do not allow SSH access.

Contributed By: e3Servers