Insight to SSH Hosting – What is SSH, and How SSH Works

If you've just entered the web hosting arena, then the chances are high that you may be confused with the tech jargon such as SSH, VPS, FTP, shared hosting etc. Well, there’s nothing to worry as it just takes a few minutes of your time to grasp the basics; thereafter everything becomes a cakewalk!

Overview of SSH
SSH stands for Secure Shell, which is one of the most trustworthy means of data transmission today. With SSH hosting the data confidentiality is much higher, and there are very feeble chances of an intruder being able to fiddle with the data being transmitted, thus ensuring peace of mind. Now, let’s see who really needs SSH access, before moving on to working of SSH, and its benefits.

Who Needs SSH Hosting?
Having seen what SSH stands for, it’s vital to understand who really requires SSH hosting services. Well, sure thing, if all that you’re doing is hosting a static site, a company/personal blog, or a simple web application, then regular shared hosting services should suffice. And, you won’t have to look at advanced services like SSH hosting. But, if you consider the case of a banking application or an e-commerce store, then the data encryption, secure transmission of information, and risks involved with non-secure connection are extremely critical aspects.

With millions of hackers, eavesdroppers and swindlers hanging around, you don’t want your secure data to be leaked out, do you? SSH is the answer to all such problems. Having seen the need of SSH, let’s move on to working of SSH.

How SSH Works?
SSH web hosting enables access to web servers in an extremely secured manner with the help of a remote login via an encrypted connection. As a result, all the valuable data is shown in an encrypted format, which intruders can’t really understand; thereby reducing the risk of hacking and phishing attempts.

Another good thing about SSH is that once you’re logged in through SSH and trying to communicate with remote host, should an intruder try to barge in, not only does SSH simply send out encrypted meaningless data, but if the interruption continues, it terminates the current session immediately. This greatly helps in improving security, and reduces chances of precious data being hacked. However, there are few more options similar to SSH – so let’s take a look at comparative analysis of SSH and other counterparts via TLS and SSL.

SSL vs TLS vs SSH
Secure Sockets Layer and Transport Layer Security often referred to as SSL and TLS in short respectively, are two more  security protocols for ensuring data-integrity, and privacy during an interaction between two remote machines.

SSL makes the File Transfer Protocol more secure by making use of Secure Sockets Layer, and adding symmetric cryptographic security in case of web based communication. Moreover, all messages being exchanged over Internet go through rigorous checking during transmission, thereby improving the reliability of communication. SSL also comes with optional session caching to optimizing the data session control.

Moving on to TLS, this option is also available in case of TLS, but TLS adds cryptographic security to provide ultimate privacy. TLS restricts interference of unauthorized just like SSH as a third party in the middle of a communication process, but it still lacks the advanced security.

SSH is the supreme-most option that brings in encrypted channels, and all the advantages mentioned earlier. Additionally, it works on Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and virtually all flavors of operating systems.

Things to Look For in SSH Hosting Services
If you’re an average customer, you must look for following aspects –
access to a remote console,
exec request.
SSH2 hosting
file transfer utilities,
port forwarding,

Note: SSH2 hosting is meant for advanced users, and you may not need it all the time.
Remember, the requirements of every customer may vary depending upon particular needs, and hence it’s a little tough to give a word on that; get in touch with your host to discuss about specific needs before making a choice.

Last but definitely not the least, it is worth noting that some shared hosting providers also provide SSH feature on some of the premium packages, while in most cases you’re going to find SSH access only in case of VPS or dedicated hosting accounts.

In a Nutshell
If you’ve got an e-commerce store to run, or high-security web apps to run, SSH is the way to go. It has become almost a pre-requisite for most of the advanced users, and it doesn’t really pinch you pocket, as SSH comes as a part of standard package in most of the VPS/dedicated hosting packages.