How do I install/configure ssh?
 

Hi everyone and best wishes to you all,

Does anyone know where I can find a simple step by step guide to setting up an ssh connection from an XP box to my Mandrake/Samba server? I just want to be able to access a secure shell or maybe an Xwindow from my XP system so I can administer my samba box without the requirement for a monitor, keyboard and mouse etc. Any help or simple guides would be great, I have only ever done this with VNC before and I would like to secure things a little more than that!!! I am suck using my XP system at the moment as my main system is down with a hardware fault and to top things off I am having samba/XP authentication issues so ssh and maybe PuTTy? Could really help me out.

Regards
Sm1ler

well, doing an ssh install is quite easy. Unless you diabled it, sshd should start with your machine. If you did, simply type sshd at a bash prompt. Most ssh clients use the following syntax from a DOS prompt:

You will be prompted to accept/reject the machines keys, and provided you say yes, enter your password, and bingo........

If you have no keys configured, then on the *nix box, type ssh-keygen at a bash prompt.
This will create RSA keys (RSA is the default encryption mech) in /home/%USER%/.ssh/
Try to connect again......you should be good.

If for whatever reason, you aren't a fan of RSA, you can specify several different encryption schemes, if you desire. Most distros support a lot of schemes, and if your fav is not found, you can load the module for it. 3DES is availible by default, but if you dig Blowfish, etc......you can do that as well.....it's up to you. If you deviate from RSA, though, you may need to specify that to your Windows client........check the docs that come with it for steps on how to do that.

Great, thanks very much for your assistance I will give it a go as soon as I get a chance later tonight... I am sure that when I installed Mandrake and Samba I selected ssh to be installed... Will ssh listen for connections automatically or will I have to configure that? Sm1ler :)

If you have sshd running, it is listening. You can change the port that it is listening on by editing /etc/sshd/sshd.conf.

Also remember to turn root login off!

For me, setting up sshd was pretty easy, there really isn't much that can go wrong. So have fun.

Thanks everyone for all your help, Enabled sshd last night and downloaded the puTTY.exe to my XP system and all worked first time with no issues or config. Great news - I can now put my Samba server in the corner of the room on a shelf out the way with no keyboard monitor or mouse and just let it do it's job...

Just one other quick Q for - Inexactitude - how do I disable sshd root login?

Regards and thanks to everyone
Sm1ler :)

Just add PermitRootLogin no to your sshd_config file and you'll be all set.

Once again thanks to everyone for all your assistance, added that line to my sshd_config late last night so I trust it will all be ok... I will test it over the weekend and if I have any problems I will let you all know.

Thanks again and best Wishes
Sm1ler :) :)