I’ve been hunting around since my last blog post (about the mobile SSH client) for how to securely enable SSH connections into my home computer. I hunted for ages for a suitable solution, and came up with this method found here (under number 5)

Firstly install the Open SSH server using the following command:

$ sudo aptitude install openssh-server

Then, modify your config file to allow certain users to log in using SSH (I like to use leafpad, you may prefer gedit, whatever):

$ sudo leafpad /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Ensure this file has the following lines in it (not commented out either!):

Protocol 2
PermitRootLogin no
AllowUsers <user>

Obviously here replace <user> with a user you wish to allow. You can have mutiple of these lines for more than one user access By default my config file had “PermitRootLogin yes” so you will want to change that.

So save that file, then you need to restart the SSH client with the following command to enable the changes:

$ sudo /etc/init.d/ssh restart

There are some other config options available, these are mentioned on the linked site above, but these ones got me started

A lot of the new Nokia mobiles have a rather nice Symbian (S60) operating system, and even more are now coming with WiFi wireless networking connections. Webmasters on the go with this type of Nokia or Symbian device can now use the Putty Mobile Java client to access their webserver (or any other SSH enabled machine, for that matter) on the go

The download is available on the official Putty for Symbian site.

Installation is the same as with any other app, but a detailed walk-through for the Nokia E61 is available at this site.

Special note for E-series users – make sure in Tools > Applications Manager > Options > Settings, the Software Installation is set to “All”, otherwise Putty (which is a self-signing application) will fail to install as Nokia believes it is unsecure