Knowledgebase

Secure shell (SSH) is a cryptographically strong replacement for login, telnet, FTP, and other programs. Protects against "spoofing," man-in-the-middle attacks, and packet sniffing. To take advantage of SSH you will need an SSH program like PuTTY or SecureCRT. This section of the manual gives information on different types of software and includes instructions for PuTTY.

Using Different Programs

Some of the programs available at the shell prompt are:

• mail - a primitive e-mail program
• pine - a more powerful e-mail program
• FTP - to FTP onto other sites
• telnet - to telnet to other sites
• pico - an easy-to-use text editor
• vi - a not so easy to use (but standard) text editor

In general, this is a complete POSIX environment. You access these programs by typing in their names and then following commands relevant to each program. If you need help with any of the programs at the shell prompt, type the "name of the program--help" to get instructions for that program online. It is important to remember that Unix is case-sensitive, and that "Index.htm" is not the same as "index.htm."

Using PuTTy

To use PuTTY with your account, you will need to make a few changes to the program's configuration.

1. Download PuTTY.
2. Open the program. The PuTTY Configuration box will open
   
   
3. Enter Your Domain Name or IP address under Basic options for your PuTTY session in the text box labeled Host Name (or IP address)
   
   
4. Next, under Protocol, select the SSH button
5. Click on the SSH menu in the Category window
6. Click the radio button that says 2 under the Preferred SSH protocol version
   
   
7. Next, click once on Blowfish from the Encryption cipher selection policy box (see Figure 3).
8. Move the Blowfish cipher to the top of the list
   1. Click the box labeled Up while Blowfish is selected 
9. To open a PuTTY session using the new settings:
   1. Click on the Open button. This will finish connecting (see Figure 3). The PuTTY session window will automatically open
      
      
10. Log in to begin your session.
    1. Enter your username and password at the prompts.