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Support Area: Telnet/SSH

Control Center Icon:

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As the internet grows, it is more frequently the subject of security breaches. The easiest way to hack a web site is to setup a "sniff" program, usually at an ISP, and grab the username and password where a user is logging into. This is very easily done when a client uses telnet because telnet passes all information to the server in clear text. When we allowed users to access our network with telnet we had at least one hack attempt per day. Successful hack attempts result in damaged or destroyed sites, stolen information, and FBI investigations. 5DollarHosting.com® now has one of the most secure networks thanks to the cooperation of all shell account users who are abandoning telnet and accessing their account via Secure Shell (SSH). SSH does not pass any information in clear text but rather uses secure encryption.

To get started with SSH, you must do the following:

A. Acquire client side software. There are two companies we recommend who sell client versions of SSH:
1) The most stable is SecureCRT. They have a 30 day free trial available at their web site. SecureCRT is at http://www.vandyke.com/products/SecureCRT/.
2) A stable international version is available at Datafellows http://www.datafellows.com/download-purchase/ and users looking for a free version or users outside the United States should file through the free implementations at http://www.net.lut.ac.uk/psst

Also, here is a list of some free MS-Windows SSH clients. NOTE: we make no recommendation about the quality of any of the 3rd-party software programs listed here.

B. Fill out our SSH Agreement form and we will activate the SSH service for your domain.

C. Once SSH access is enabled, follow the SSH client-side software instructions to generate an RSA key.

D. Install the key in the "SSH" section of your domain's Control Center.

E. Enter up to 3 access addresses from which you will be connecting with SSH. You may use wildcards, and either domain names or IP address ranges are acceptable. The more specific you can be the better! If you regulary connect from one ISP you can get the range of IPs from them. Using the asterisk as a wildcard, the format for your access addresses could be 123.456.*.*, or *.ispdomain.com.

[USING SECURECRT]
These are the settings you will need to connect to your account with SecureCRT:

Protocol: SSH
Port: 22
Cipher: 3DES
Authentication: RSA

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