How to log in to the command line using SSH with PuTTY

Many of the most effective tools for managing your server can only be found on the command

line. This guide will walk you through logging in to SSH using a free program named PuTTY.

Before you will be able to log in to your server, you will need some information about your

server.

When you created your server, you set up a root password. If your server was set up for

you, you should request your root password for your server from your administrator as you

will need it to log in.

Some administrators may not allow the user root to access the server over SSH and in this

case they will provide you with the appropriate user and password information to help you

get logged in.

You will need the following:

Server's Address
Server's SSH Port (This is 22 by default)
Username for SSH
Password for SSH

You do not need to use PuTTY if you have another program that you prefer. PuTTY is a free

program that is lightweight and easy to use.

PuTTY can be downloaded here: http://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/putty/latest/x86/putty.exe

Once you have it downloaded, open it up.

Once the putty window is open you should see an interface similar to this one:

Using the information you collected earlier:

Hostname - The server's address
Port - The server's port for SSH (This is 22 by default)

Make the connection type is SSH.

When you have entered in the settings, click Open

A new windows will open up and prompt you for your login name

login as:

Type in your username for SSH (either your root password or the password provided by

your administrator) and press enter.

You will receive a prompt for your password so go ahead and type that in next and hit

enter when done.

You'll know that you are logged in correctly because you should see something like:

root@server [~]#

Once you've reached that, you're ready to get started in the command line.