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How to connect to your account through SSH in Windows

Windows users can connect to their hosting accounts through SSH using an application called PuTTY.

In addition to downloading and configuring PuTTY, you also need to send a ticket to the HostKnox support team requesting SSH access to your account. If you don't have SSH keys, we'll send you a private SSH key with a passphrase. You also have the option to generate the keys yourself. We'll explain this further down in the article.

You can download PuTTY from the site of its developer. Make sure you download the whole installer package (e.g. putty-0.61-installer.exe). It includes several things: PuTTY itself, PuTTY Key Generator, Pageant.

After you install PuTTY, if you decide to use an SSH private key sent by us save it on your local computer, then go to the folder where you installed the PuTTY package and open Pageant. Click on the Add Key button to find the key you saved earlier on your local computer. You will also have to type the passphrase we sent you together with the key.

If for some reason the private key is not in the file format used by PuTTY (.ppk), you can convert it using the PuTTY Key Generator (you can find it in the same folder with the other PuTTY applications).

After you add the key in Pageant, start the PuTTY application. In the Host Name (or IP address) field type your host name (as long as it points to our servers) or the IP address, and then just click on Open. That's it. You'll see the PuTTY command line interface where you can execute commands.

If you decide to generate the SSH keys yourself, you can do it from the PuTTY Key Generator. Generate two keys and save one as a private key and the other as a public key. Then send us the public key and add the private key in Pageant.

For some more information you can also check out the tutorial on connecting to your account through SSH.

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