Re: recommendations for an SSH client?

[Kevin Wilcox <wilcoxkm () APPSTATE EDU>]

On 23 February 2010 10:07, Tim Cline <tcline () email unc edu> wrote:

> I would be interested in hearing your opinions about what SSH client you
> prefer. I am particularly interested in a client that 1) is cross-platform,
> 2) is supported by its vendor for the current versions of Windows, Mac OS X,
> RHEL, and Ubuntu, 3) is free (as in free beer), 4) has a GUI as opposed to a
> CLI, and 5) also offers the ability to securely copy or transfer files. I am
> interested in seeing whether this client could be linked from a local
> shareware site, as well as to whether it could be included as part of a
> standard software image package made available to faculty and staff. Many
> thanks.

Tim - I'm afraid you're probably going to run into issues with that
set of requirements.

Under Windows, the ubiquitous "free" solution is putty. It's released
under the MIT license, a license *very* similar to the standard BSD
license, meaning you can do pretty much anything you want with it. The
source is available for Windows and Unix but I've never seen an Unix
binary and I have no clue how difficult it would be to build for any
Unix platform.

The next issue with putty is that it is *only* SSH. The project
provides pscp but it's a command line application (even under
Windows). It is quite functional and I've used it several times when
I've been forced to use a Windows desktop and didn't have the luxury
of installing Cygwin. WinSCP is another option but it is strictly
Windows and doesn't (or didn't) offer SSH.

The ubiquitous solution in the Unix world is OpenSSH. It runs on
nearly every operating system you can imagine - BSD, GNU/Linux, AIX,
OpenVMS, Solaris, Windows, you name it. It's command line only and
probably only available for Windows as source code (if you want a
native solution) so possibly not a viable solution for you.

If I were recommending a "one size fits all" solution, I'd recommend
using OpenSSH on the RHEL/Ubuntu machines and installing
Cygwin+OpenSSH on the Windows side (assuming central IT management of
the machines). I'm not a big fan of the Cygwin license (GPL, so
restrictive) but you can package it in-house, push it out and the
process for the end user can be the same under Windows as for Unix -
click on "Terminal" and type "ssh username () destination unc edu". It's
neither slick nor fancy but from a support point of view it doesn't
matter if the clients are Windows, Mac OS X, RedHat, Ubuntu, Debian,
Solaris, etc., because in the end they're all using OpenSSH for
connectivity. I've used it as a way to get people ready to transition
from Windows to Unix and it's worked very, very well.

By "supported by the vendor" are you just looking for stable releases
for all platforms or an actual support contract?

kmw

--
Kevin Wilcox
Network Infrastructure and Control Systems
Appalachian State University
Email: wilcoxkm () appstate edu
Office: 828.262.6259