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Nine Open Source SSH Clients for System Administrators

Posted May 22nd, 2009 by hosting

For any system administrator, the term SSH client is a common term. However, whether you are someone who is thinking about becoming a system administrator, or are simply interested in learning more about this topic, an SSH client is any software program that uses the secure shell protocol to establish a connection with a remote computer. Because there are a wide variety of SSH clients that are available, we have compiled a list specifically for system administrators of nine open source SSH clients that have proven themselves to be reliable and secure:

  • CopSSH: Currently supported on a variety of Windows operating systems (including NT, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista and 2008), the CopSSH client is billed as not only free, but also a “simple, one click solution.”
  • cURL: If you are looking for a SSH client that runs on a system that is not Windows, cURL may be what you need. Currently on version 7.19.4 (which was released quite recently), the original cURL project has been in existence since 1997.
  • Dropbear: The main feature that sets Dropbear apart from many other SSH clients is the fact that it is designed for use in environments that do not have extensive memory and processor resources. Because of its lightweight design, it is ideal for embedded systems (an example of an embedded system would be a wireless router).
  • lsh: lsh is a free implementation of the ssh version 2 protocol. It is currently standardized by the IETF SECSH working group.
  • OpenSSH: As many of you may already know from previous experience, the OpenSSH client is part of the OpenBSD project (a project that is fully funded by donations). This specific SSH client was developed as an open source alternative to the proprietary Secure Shell software suite, which is offered by SSH Communications Security.
  • PuTTY: Although the PuTTY SSH client was written for the Windows platform, it has been unofficially ported (or partially ported) to multiple other operating systems, including Classic Mac OS, Mac OS X, Symbian, Windows Mobile and Unix-like platforms.
  • SunSSH: In 2001, SunSSH and Solaris were integrated with each other, so many people now also refer to this SSH client as Solaris Secure Shell.
  • Tera Term: As you will see if you visit the Tera Term link, this open source SSH has been maintained by a Japanese developer team (which refers to themselves simply as the Tera Team Project) since 2007.
  • WinSCP: Recently, WinSCP 4.1.9 was released to the public. In addition to supporting Secure FTP, it also supports legacy SCP protocol.