Hold on… What is SSH?

Well, I’m sure that if you have ordered, or are currently renting a VPS, you will have seen something in your welcome email about SSH, and a “root” password - This is like a login to your server - its like logging into Windows, you need to know your username (In this case, “root” and you need to know your password.

Now, Linux over the internet is not like Windows, as it does not offer a GUI (Graphical user Interface) instead of having a WIMP interface (Windows, Icons, Menus and Pointers), you are faced with a boring, but powerful, command line interface for getting the Linux server to carry out the tasks you need it to do.

Just like Windows, the Linux operating system is able to run “Programs”, which can have many file extensions, but they do not run Windows .exe files. The most common type of Linux executable file is a shell script, which has the extension .sh

What do I need?

Well, to start with, no server administrator owns a computer that does not have a working copy of PuTTY. PuTTY is a free Telnet and SSH client used by server administrators and users to control linux, and sometimes windows based systems.

PuTTY can be downloaded from the official website, by clicking here.

Okay. I have PuTTY, now what?

Well, now the fun begins. Its time to make your first connection to your server via SSH. First of all, run PuTTY. You will see that PuTTY is not an installer, its a stand alone application that you download, meaning you will need to run that every time you wish to use it, it does not create a shortcut in your start menu.

When running PuTTY, you will see the following on screen:


Once you see the page like above on your PuTTY, you can start entering your details, for this, you will need the following:

1. Your root password (And username if changed)
2. Your Server IP address
3. Your Servers SSH port (If unknown, use 22)

Fill out the page as follows:


Using the color coded boxes from the image above;

* In the Red box, enter your Servers IP address.
* In the Blue box, enter your Servers SSH port, if unknown, leave it as 22.
* Make sure “SSH” is selected like the black box shows.

Once all that has been filled in and checked, click the Green button “Open”. You will see something like the following:


That error as it is called, is perfectly normal for the first time you connect via an SSH connection to a new server. You should click “Yes”. If you see this error when you next connect, there may be a problem, and you should read what the error states.