Installing SSH and SFTP clients

For Linux and MacOS users, SSH and SFTP clients should be installed by default.

For MS Windows users, clients must be installed. One possibility is PuTTY (http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/), which includes both SSH and SFTP clients. To use these from the command line, it is easiest to either add the installation folder (default is \Program Files\PuTTY) to the PATH environment variable, or install the executables in a directory which is already on the path.

Usage

PuTTY GUI

To start an SSH session using the GUI, start PuTTY from the "Start" menu.

In the "Session" tab:
- Enter host name.
- Be sure SSH is checked just below the Host name field.
In the "Connection" tab:
- In the "Data" item, enter your user name (for the remote host).
- To use public key authorization, provide the location of the file where the key is stored in the "SSH/Auth" item.
Save session for later convenience (open "Session" tab, type the name you wish to give this session in the "Saved Sessions" field, and click "Save").
Click "Open".

PuTTY command line

To start an SSH session, open a terminal window and type
```
putty <user@host> 
```
If the executable is not in the PATH, you will need to specify the full path, e.g.,
```
"Program Files\PuTTY\putty" <user@host>
```
To start an SFTP session, open a terminal window and type
```
psftp <user@host>
```
If the executable is not in the PATH, you will need to specify the full path, e.g.,
```
"Program Files\PuTTY\psftp" <user@host>
```

Linux and MacOS

To start an SSH session, open a terminal window and type

ssh <user@host>

To start an SFTP session, open a terminal window and type

sftp <user@host>

Using public key authorization

Obtain a private key that allows access to the host server.
- For Linux and MacOS, the key file should typically be saved in ~/.ssh, and must be only readable by owner.
- For PuTTY users, the key file must first be converted to PuTTY format. For this, you will need to use the PuTTYgen utility.
  - Start PuTTYgen from the "Start" menu.
  - Click "Load key file".
  - Browse for key file (need to enable viewing "All files").
  - Click "Load".
  - Click "Save" to save converted file.

To use the key for authorization:

ssh -i <keyfile>  <user@host>
sftp -i <keyfile>  <user@host>

Or, for PuTTY

putty -i <keyfile>  <user@host>
psftp -i <keyfile>  <user@host>