Secure Linux/UNIX access with PuTTY and OpenSSH

While assessing a new customer's network, one of my first recommendations was to eliminate passworded access to their main systems via secure shell, and in the process of writing up the instructions for configuring PuTTY and OpenSSH, I realized that this would be of wider interest.

So I created a Tech Tip that details how to install the wonderful and free PuTTY secure shell client and to configure it to use public key encryption without passwords on an OpenSSH server. This has a lot of screen shots and detail, and it should be enough to get anybody started on the road of secure server access.

Unixwiz.net Tech Tip: Secure Linux/UNIX access with PuTTY and OpenSSH

This really does look like a lot of work to set up, and in some respects it is, but it's largely a one-time cost which is immensely rewarded in short order. I use public-key, agented access to my servers, and I type a secret word (the pass phrase to my private key) about once a day: after that, all access "just happens".

It's really, really worth the time to learn, and I hope that this Tech Tip makes it a bit easier.