I have been able to connect to my RH Linux server using SSH2 and password authentication, but am having a problem with the keys. I'm new at this and must be confused on where to store each key. I have generated them on the linux machine and moved the public key to my Windows box, and I have used AbsoluteTelnet (v3) to generate the keys and moved the pub (tried openssh and SS2) key to the linux machine in my ~/.ssh folder. I've tried the RSA and DSA types.

Can you suggest something I could have missed or any common mistakes that I may have made?

M.Caraway

Michael, The private key *always* belongs on the client side, regardless of which side generated it. For OpenSSH, the public key goes in a specific file 'authorized_keys' in the .ssh directory. Recommended permissions on the authorized_keys file is '600': chmod 600 authorized_keys Older versions of the OpenSSH server may require that protocol 2 public keys be placed in a file called 'authorized_keys2' instead. Check your manpage for ssh-keygen to be sure. AbsoluteTelnet 3.00 has a known problem with password-encrypted key files. For now, create your keys without password encryption or download the newest beta of AbsoluteTelnet:

http://www.celestialsoftware.net/beta-testing

Brian,

Thanks. I kept overlooking the $HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys file. Once I copied the open ssh public key into it, everything works as advertised. I'm even port forwarding and accessing my PCs behind a firewall using the linux machine as an ssh host.

M. Caraway