How do I get Secure Shell (SSH) access?

For those who require additional control over their websites not available via FTP access, remote access is also available through Secure Shell (SSH) access. SSH access enables administrators to perform unix commands directly from the command line, and as such is recommended only for advanced users.

Step 1 -- Requesting a Secure Shell account

Contact customer support to have a shell user account added for your hosting account. You may be asked why shell access is required for your account, as the most common tasks for your website can be performed via FTP or from within the LAMP Host Control Panel.

Step 2 -- Downloading an SSH client

Most Linux/Unix-like Operating System distributions ship with SSH clients installed by default. These will provide the 'ssh' command to be used within a terminal or terminal emulator such as xterm, gnome-terminal, or Konsole.

Mac OSX users can find a terminal emulator called 'Terminal' in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder. An SSH client comes pre-installed with Mac OSX.

Windows users can download and use Putty SSH, a free SSH client.