How to configure Windows Vista as ssh server – part 2

>Part II :

Configuring ssh as a service on Vista

In the previous part,we installed Cygwin with openssh package on Vista machine.

Let us now get into the more fun part – configuring the service.

To configure openssh,launch Cygwin with administrator privileges (Right Click on icon and select “Run as administrator“).

The command prompt of Cygwin is a bash shell by default.Type at the prompt :
ssh-host-config

This will kick off the process of generating public and private keys,make a user for openssh service and finally install the service.

The complete configuration of openssh is stored in /etc/ssh_config file (C:cygwinetcssh_config by default).

While installation if permission errors come up,best workaround will be to use chmod to change permissions on the particular path/folder/file to full read/write access (chmod 777 does the trick).

Once the keys are generated,the next configuration step is that you will be prompted to install sshd as a service and along with that a system user with password to run the above created service.

Hit yes and let the configuration run it’s course.You will need to enter a password twice to proceed further.

A new user for the Cygwin ssh service will be added,the corresponding file where that will be saved is /etc/passwd (C:cygwinetcpasswd).You can take a quick look at that file from Windows command prompt if interested,use “type passwd” at command prompt to display the file contents :

C:cygwinetc>type passwd
SYSTEM:*:18:544:,S-1-5-18::
LocalService:*:19:544:U-NT AUTHORITYLocalService,S-1-5-19::
NetworkService:*:20:544:U-NT AUTHORITYNetworkService,S-1-5-20::
Administrators:*:544:544:,S-1-5-32-544::
Administrator:unused_by_nt/2000/xp:500:513:U-BOXAdministrator,S-1-5-21-94990715
2-3035104239-382405881-500:/home/Administrator:/bin/bash
AVP:unused_by_nt/2000/xp:1000:513:U-BOXAVP,S-1-5-21-949907152-3035104239-382405
881-1000:/home/AVP:/bin/bash
Guest:unused_by_nt/2000/xp:501:513:U-BOXGuest,S-1-5-21-949907152-3035104239-382
405881-501:/home/Guest:/bin/bash

Finally,the message that host configuration is complete will be shown.This marks the end of configuration of ssh service on Vista.

Simply start the service by typing “net start sshd” at the Cygwin console.

Behold,you now have a working ssh server on Windows Vista.
To connect to this ssh server,we need a ssh client like Putty.Check out here on how to go about connecting to ssh server.

Hope this has been an informative post.