SSH Quick Start

[English|Japanese]

When telnet, ftp, rlogin or rcp program is used, the transfered data, including passwords or your private data, can be easily intercepted by intermediate hosts. This is undisirable not only for your privacy but for your network system's security level.

ssh(Secure SHell) never sends data in cleartext, and you can use it with almost the same user-interface as rlogin etc. Brief usages follow. See ssh(1) or following URL for more information.

SSH-FAQ: http://www.uni-karlsruhe.de/~ig25/ssh-faq/

1. Instead of rlogin

  example% ssh yourserver.example.com -l yourname

Login yourserver.example.com as a user yourname. If remote username is the same as local one, you don't have to specify -l option.

Since X connections are automaticalluy forwarded, you can run X clients without setenving DISPLAY or running xhost command.

2. Instead of rcp

  example% scp yourname@yourserver.example.com:hogedir/hoge.txt ./

Transfer yourname's file ${HOME}/hogedir/hoge.txt at the host yourserver.example.com to the local current directory.

  example% scp localfile yourname@yourserver.example.com:hogedir/

Transfer the file localfile to yourname's ${HOME}/hogedir/ at the remote host yourserver.example.com.

3. Instead of xon

  example% ssh -f -l yourname yourserver.example.com xclock

Run xclock at yourserver.example.com as yourname and show it in the local display. Note that -f is used. You don't have to type `&' at the end of command line.

In 1. 2. and 3., when logging in a host for the first time, you may be asked:

Host key not found from the list of known hosts.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? 

Please answer yes then.

4. Want to login without passwords

Use .shosts file in your home directory, which has the same format as .rhosts file. Set permission properly and make sure that it cannot be read by others.

But this is not enough though I don't make further explanation here. If your .shosts file doesn't work when logging in host B from host A, try logging in A from B once. You'll be able to log in host B without passwords after that.

5. Where ssh can be used?

If ssh commands are installed in local system and ssh server is running at remote, ssh can be used.

6. Want to use ssh from my home

If you have a PC-UNIX box, all you have to do is to install ssh in your machine.

MS-Windows being used, you can use an SSH Extension to TeraTerm.

• http://www.zip.com.au/~roca/ttssh.html

7. Want to use RSA authentication to prove my identity

OK, you're no longer a beginner:-) See ssh(1).