SSH

This guide will get you connected to your slot via SSH (Secure Shell). The article is built on assumption that you can find your slot details from the Feral web manager.

There are a lot of different operations that can be performed via SSH and many pieces of software are installed via it. It is a pretty important tool to have and be able to use for a lot of people.

Table of contents

General information

You can find the server/hostname, username and password for SSH on by clicking on the Software link to the left-hand side of the Feral web manager.

When trying to log in for the first time (except on KiTTY), you will receive a message which begins:

The authenticity of host 'server.feralhosting.com (IP)' can't be established.

Naturally, in your specific case, server will be replaced with the name of the server you are trying to connect to and IP will be replaced by its IP. It will then ask you Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? and wait for your response. After checking the details are as expected, type yes and press enter to save the host key.

The Windows utility KiTTY will display a different pop-up and that will be covered in the Windows section.

When you are asked to enter your password, it is important to know that your password entry will not appear to respond to your input - it will not display ***** or something similar as you type.

Windows

We will use a piece of software called KiTTY to connect to our slot via SSH. It is a fork of PuTTY with a few more useful features - it is possible to rename kitty.exe to putty.exe if other pieces of software (such as BitKinex or WinSCP) expect that filename. The first thing to do is download KiTTY.

Double-clicking on the executable will open a configuration window. We only need to make a couple of changes to get connected.

In the list a categories in the left-hand pane, look for Window and click on Translation. Make sure that UTF-8 is selected under Remote Character Set.

Kitty screenshot showing the location of the Translation settings and the remote character set
The location of the Translation settings and Remote character set choices.

Next, look for Connection in the category list and click on Data. Make the following changes to the listed fields:

Auto-login username
Your SSH username
Auto-login password
Your SSH / SFTP / FTP password (it's the same password)
Kitty screenshot showing how to configure automatic username and password settings
The location of the Auto-login settings.

Then select Session from the category list and make the following changes:

Host Name (or IP address)
server.feralhosting.com, where server is replaced by your actual server name
Saved Sessions
Enter a name of your choice to save the session under. Anything will do - why not your server name?

After making these changes click on Save to the right-hand side. All the changes you've made will be saved under the name specified in Saved Sessions

Kitty screenshot showing a session being saved
Enter your details and then click Save.

If you double-click on the saved session name it will load up the session according to the settings you have provided. If you provided, as above, the username and password directly you'll be logged in without having to enter anything.

Image of a warning from Kitty. The text reads 'The server's host key is not cached in the registry. You have no guarantee that the server is the computer you think it is.'
If you've configured as above you can click Yes.

Mac

No special software is needed to access your slot via SSH if you use macOS. You can simply access the terminal and connect out of the box.

To access the terminal, access your Applications folder, then open Utilities. You'll see Terminal in the list. To save time in the future you can drag the icon for Terminal on to the Dock.

Once you have a terminal window open, you can run ssh user@server.feralhosting.com, where user is replaced by your username and server is replaced by the name of your server. You will then be prompted to enter your SSH password.

Linux

Firstly you need to access your terminal. Whilst there may obviously be differences between the different distributions of Linux, the standard way to access this in Debian, Ubuntu and Linux Mint is by pressing ctrl + alt + T.

Once you have a terminal window open, you can run ssh user@server.feralhosting.com, where user is replaced by your username and server is replaced by the name of your server. You will then be prompted to enter your SSH password.

If other flavours have different methods, feel free to write up subsections for them.