SSH from a Windows client to a Linux server

2016-02-22

Ssh · Tech

2 minutes

At the moment, I’m still in the process of setting up my home network server. I’ll be taking notes about my progress here so this might be a series of related posts.

I’m using an Ubuntu 14.04 Server (headless). Client is a Windows 10 machine.

The simple way

Server side

  1. Install ssh. How to do this depends on what distro you are using. For Ubuntu, you can do an apt-get install ssh. I didnt have to do this however as I installed it during the server setup.

Client side

  1. Install Putty. I suggest you download the installer.
  2. Open Putty, input your server IP under Host Name (or IP address), and click Open.
  3. Enter your server login name and password.

But entering server credentials every time you login is really a bit of a hassle, isnt it? Enter public/private keys.

The simple and convenient way

Server side

  1. Create a .ssh folder in you home folder if you havent got one. Then cd to your .ssh folder.
  2. Generate a public/private key pair inside .ssh folder.
$ ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -f <filename>

You can choose to add a passphrase, but I didnt since the point here really is to not type anything during login (you still have to enter the passphrase every time you login if you provide one). This will generate two files: the private key with the name <filename> and the public key <filename>.pub.

  1. Append the public key (<filename>.pub) to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys.
$ cat <filename>.pub >> authorized_keys
$ chmod -R 600 ~/.ssh
  1. Copy the private key to your Windows client.

Client side

  1. Install Putty. I suggest you download the installer.
  2. Generate a .ppk file from the private key using PuttyGen. Load the copied private key then click Save private key.
  3. Setup Putty to use the .ppk file.
  4. Add auto-login username under Connection -> Data.
  5. Add the .ppk file to Private key file for authentication under Connection -> SSH -> Auth.
  6. Go back to Sessions, enter your servers IP address, add a session name under Saved Sessions and save.
  7. Try logging in to your server using the saved session details from #3. You should be able to now without typing your server credentials.