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too much control can do more harm than good or why you really
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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.
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