Customer Support

Generating keys using PuTTY didn't seem to work. Generating them with
Cygwin's ssh-keygen instead worked fine. The key should have no
passphrase, otherwise you'll still be prompted for a password.

It is possible to use keys with passwords (without having to input the
password every time), if you are ssh'ing from a linux/unix box.

See the bash script "keychain" and the information on ssh-agent at
http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-keyc2/

An article discussing ssh'ing between servers using only public/private
keypairs, and no passwords, is here:

http://www.devshed.com/Server_Side/Administration/Tunnelling/page3.html

I failed with PuTTY but succeeded with CygWin.  Run CygWin setup to tell
it where to look for your private key, then go back to the CygWin shell
prompt and type
ssh yourusername@modwest.com

CygWin is a Unix emulator for Windows.

I successfully used it to connect via ssh after more user-friendly
alternatives didn't work for me. 

To get public/private key files, I ran ssh-keygen under Cygwin, then
uploaded the public file to /.ssh/authorized_keys2 (as recommended
elsewhere on these support pages).  I also ran CygWin setup to tell it
where I was keeping my private key.

Then all I had to do was return to the CygWin prompt and do:

    ssh myusername@modwest.com 

and I was in.

Could successfully populate a CVS repository with PuTTY and WinCvs using
the
excellent notes at anders.fix.no/cvs/wincvs-ssh.
Only one glitch, notes mention file authorized_keys, one must use
authorized_keys2
Regards

For the time being, CVS only users cannot use authenticated key pairs to
login.  They will have to type their password.

Since the SSH1 protocol is not used anymore, you don;t need to call your
file "authorized_keys2" anymore (signifyign SSH2 protocol). You can call
the file just "authorized_keys" now.

Suppose you need multiple people coming from multiple different hosts to
be able to get into a single account using ssh keys.

Each person follows the first part of this FAQ to generate a public and
private key pair (if they don't have one already). 

Then only the first person creates the file "/.ssh/authorized_keys2" by
following the 2nd half of the instructions in this FAQ.

Everyone else will just copy the contents of their own id_dsa.pub file
from their local computer and paste it on a new line into the
authorized_keys2 file that is on the server.

Each line of the authorized_keys2 file on the server will be very long
and look similar to:

    ssh-dss AKJHSHS/verylongline== some-user@local-hostname

Each line in the authorized_keys2 file on the server corresponds to a
user who can get into the account from a remote host. The remote user's
remote username and remote hostname are printed at the end of each line.

If you have 10 users that can get into the account, the file will have
10 lines in it, each one filled with an individual's public key info.

Using ssh-keygen from Cygwin worked for me as well. As mentioned in a
previous note, you can still use it with a passphrase and get remote
access by using ssh-agent. Having key pairs without a passphrase doesn't
seem like a good idea to me.

Use ssh-agent to start a new bash session, and then do ssh-add to enter
your passphrase only once at the start of the session:

$ssh-agent bash
$
...(you're in a new subshell now)
$ssh-add
(prompts for passphrase)
$
...
$ssh user@shell.modwest.com
(should get in without prompts)
remote$
...(do stuff in remote shell)
remote$exit
$
...
(do stuff in local shell)
...
$ssh user@shellmodwest.com
(should get in without prompts again)
remote$

and so on...