After you received VPS or Dedicated server details from your hosting provider, you will need to connect to your server and configure it.
This article describes how to use a client called PuTTY to form an Secure Shell (SSH) connection from a computer running a Microsoft Windows OS to a Linux server.
Download PuTTY
Download PuTTY from the website.
After you download PuTTY, launch the application.
Configure your connection
In the PuTTY Configuration window, enter the following values and then click Open:
- In the Host Name enter the IP address of your server.
- Ensure the Port is set to 22 and Connection Type is set to SSH.
- (Optional) In the Saved Sessions field, you can assign a name for this connection. Feel free to save it to whatever name you want: it simply saves time next time you use Putty. You can have a different name for each of your servers.
Accept the key
If this is the first time that you have used PuTTY to log in to your server with SSH, a warning message will be displayed.
If you are sure that you have entered the correct information, click Yes.
Subsequent connections will not show this warning because the host key is now cached in the registry of your local computer. You can expect to see that warning, however, if you connect to your server from a different computer.
Enter your username and password
After you accept the warning, the terminal prompts you for your username and password.
If this is the first time that you are logging in to the server, you must log in as the root user.
When you are prompted for the password for the root user, enter the current root password for this server. When you enter this password at the prompt, it is not echoed to the screen. Then, press Enter.
If you have entered the correct root password, the prompt responds with a shell prompt:
|
1 |
[root@yourservername ~]# |
Now you can work on your server with all permissions.
Change your root passwords
We recommend that you change the root password.You can easily do this by using the passwd command.
- From the shell prompt, enter the passwd command.
- Enter the new password that you want to set for your server. The password does not echo to the screen.
- Reenter the new password and press Enter.
You will now use this password with the root user whenever you connect to your server.
