Guides

How to: Connect via SSH

How to: Connect via SSH

This guide will: Explain the different routes for connecting to your server via SSH.

Contents:

Overview:

There are several ways to connect directly to your server using SSH.

To connect via SSH on a Mac, you don’t need any additional software. To connect using your Windows PC, you will need to make sure you have installed an SSH client such as WinSCP or PuTTy.

Note: You can find your website’s SSH details by following the steps in our guide to accessing your SSH details.

How to connect with PuTTY:

  1. Download and run the latest PuTTY installer.

  2. When you open PuTTY, you’ll be shown the configuration menu.

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  1. Enter your server’s hostname or IP address into the ‘Host Name’ field. The default port for SSH is 22 - add this into the ‘Port’ field.

  2. Click ‘Open’ to start an SSH session.

If you have never previously logged into this system with PuTTY, you’ll be alerted to the fact that the server’s SSH key fingerprint is new and asked whether you want to proceed. Select ‘Yes’.

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  1. When prompted to log in, enter your username and password. From there, you’ll be logged into the server.

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  1. You may want to issue the following command to log you into the root account, and grant you higher permission to run commands:

su -

Note: If you require the root login details for the server, you can get these from the Client Area or the hosting platform.

How to connect with Terminal:

  1. Launch the Terminal application. You’ll find this in /Applications/Utilities directory, or launch it from Spotlight by hitting Command+Spacebar and typing ‘Terminal’.

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  1. At the command prompt, enter the following SSH syntax, replacing ‘username’ with the appropriate user account of the remote machine, and ‘ip’ with the IP address of the remote machine.

ssh username@your_server_ip

e.g. ssh [email protected]

  1. Hit the return key to execute the command.

  2. You may need to verify the authenticity of the host. If everything correlates, type ‘ues’ to accept a fingerprint key and connect to the SSH server, or ‘no’ to reject it and disconnect.

  3. Login to the remote server by entering the password for the user account you are logging in to.

  4. You may want to issue the following command to log you into the root account, and grant you higher permission to run commands:

su -

Note: If you require the root login details for the server, you can get these from the Client Area or the hosting platform.

How to connect with 1-click SSH button:

If you are using a Mac or Windows computer with WinSCP installed, you can use our 1-click SSH button to connect to the server via SSH.

Clicking the button will automatically open your SSH client, and all you’ll need to do is enter your password to connect.

The 1-click SSH button is located on the same page as your SSH details - which can be found by following the steps in our guide to accessing your SSH details.

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Video tutorial:

Still having issues?

Further reading:

  • KB ARTICLE or
  • BLOG LINK

Updated 16 days ago