Remote Linux server administration made easy

Many among us, who have worked all these years on Microsoft Windows operating system, find it hard to work with text based Linux or other operating system.

It is fact that Linux OS based web servers are more popular than Windows servers. I would not go into the debate by citing reasons but surely Linux servers are cheaper in price.

If you are new to Linux based website administration or login to remote Linux server once in a while to perform jobs then SSH Explorer comes to your rescue by providing Windows explorer like interface for SSH (Secure Shell).

You do not need to be scared as you can see the files and folders on your remote Linux server the same way you see on local Windows operating system.

The software supports Telnet, SSH1, SSH2 protocols. You can also set the emulation.  Once you have entered the IP, login details for the server then you can connect to it. It shows folders and files on the left side of the screen and on right side it shows the terminal window [Fig 1].

You can perform various functions by right clicking on a file or folder. You can edit a text file in SSH editor which is similar to notepad [Fig 2]. In background it downloads the file and when saved uploads the file making you feel as if you are working on a local file.

There are various snippets which are basically macros for commands on Linux. By default there are File, Directory, Networking, Archive, Monitoring, Search and Search & Replace snippets. You can add your own or edit them. This is very useful if you cannot remember Linux commands.

There are settings related to connection with options like auto-reconnect, display conformation on disconnect etc. You can also setup terminal column size, scrollback size, Font type, size and color, background color [Fig 3]. If you use proxy connection then you can also set the details.

It also has SFTP (Secure FTP) tool which can be used to download and upload the files [Fig 4]. This is really useful as it completes the basic requirements for managing websites on remote server. You can set default local and remote directories to be shown.

It is important to point out that FTP is not a secure or safe solution as it sends password in clear text which can be sniffed over a network. Always remember to use SFTP for transferring files.

There is also printing functionality which you can use to print terminal window output. You can print the visible are or the whole output. You can also capture the output to log file.

Conclusion: SSH explorer no doubt is useful for people who need to manage remote Linux servers but are not accustomed with the commands or text based management. For advanced users also if you hide the explore pane and snippet toolbar then it becomes a normal terminal based SSH client.