SSH is a client/server application that facilitates the encrypted transmission of data between two connections. This is a superior means of connecting over telnet because it protects a user's password or any other sensitive data while being transmitted across a network where it is open to interception. Please contact a computing staff member if you need to use SSH from your laptop or other location, to connect to MSRI's network.

SSH has a suite of utilities that parallel the functionality of the more traditional Unix applications of telnet, rcp and ftp. The SSH counterparts are ssh, scp and sftp, respectively.

In order to connect to MSRI via SSH, connect to the hostname sshost.msri.org

To connect, you can thus use the commands:

ssh your-msri-username@sshost.msri.org
sftp your-msri-username@sshost.msri.org
or
scp source-file destination-file , where you can specify a remote location for the source or destination file, e.g.
scp foo.txt your-msri-username@sshost.msri.org:foo-new.txt

Security

MSRI uses an IP-based security policy on our SSH server, using the following criteria:

• If you attempt to log in to sshost.msri.org with the wrong password SIX (6) times within a two-hour period, your IP will be blocked from connecting for 2 hours.
• If you attempt to log in to sshost.msri.org with the wrong username THREE (3) times within a two-hour period, your IP will be blocked from connecting for 2 hours.

If your IP has been blocked accidentally, you may contact the computing department by email or by calling (510)643-0906.

Connections from MSRI

MSRI currently runs OpenSSH. However, there should be no difficulty in connecting to and from sites whose servers run commercial or other versions of the SSH software. If attempts to connect to your institution or place of business from MSRI fails using ssh, please contact a computing staff member.