Title: SSH Basics
version: draft
Author: Sander

Goals.
This howto is not meant to go in to the dirty details of ssh.
It is just meant to help you solve some common problems.

Who?
This howto is for starting linux users with ssh problem or
who just want to sharpen there knowledge.
It is however NOT intended for experienced users, although they
are welcome to comment they ,most likely will not learn
anything new.

So lets start:
SSH is short for: Secure Shell. This explains just what it is
ssh is a way to just a shell on another computer in a secure way.
the data transmitted over Ssh is an encrypted where as for example
Telnet is not encrypted. in fact when you sniff an telnet connection
you'll see username and password used to setup a connection flying
across you screen. which is very useful if you're a bad person.
but as we don't want that to happen we'll use SSH.
SSH consists out of two parts.
1. the client, we'll be talking about that one.
2. the server, we'll not be talking about that one, but port 22
in the fire wall must be open.

Loging in:
When you want to log in on an other computer using ssh you'll have
to give the command "ssh username@host" after the client and server
have made there connection.
Or if you use the same user name on you client machine as on the server
machine you can just give the "ssh host" command.
When you give the correct password you'll be logged in. have fun.

However: When you log in for the first time encryption keys will be
made. You'll be noticed of this with the massage:

type yes. and you'll be able to connect.

Problems do arise when the ip address of the target host changes. you'll get
an error message and there will not be an connection. In this case you can
got to your home dir and go to the .ssh directory. here lives a file called
"known_hosts" you can open this file in vi and delete the line which has
the hostname and ip address in front of it. (use dd to delete the line)
when you try to connect to the server after this you'll be asked if you
want to make a key, you'll know what to do.

you can also have a problem when the host name is not resolved. the error here
is:
In such a case use the ip address in stead of the hostname or get your resolve
problem fixed.

The end:
to log out of your ssh session type simply "exit".
There is a lot more the be known about SSH, but the above is what i think is the
knowledge you'll need to work with ssh and solve the most common problems.