January 25, 2013 by mguhlin

SSH via Your #iPad

An UbuntuLinux Server running Moodle…I’m accessing it via iSSH on my iPad 3rd gen

Earlier tonight, I found myself needing to connect to an UbuntuLinux server via openssh to help out a friend; they needed Moodle server setup help. Since I only had my iPad with me (who wants to carry a laptop anymore), I decided to see if I could connect using an app. I’d done this before with a free app but the experience hadn’t worked out perfectly. This time, I decided to invest in iSSH, an iPad app that allows for access via OpenSSH. If you’re not familiar with openssh, here’s a quick overview:

OpenSSH (OpenBSD Secure Shell) is a set of computer programs providing encrypted communication sessions over a computer network using the SSH protocol. It was created as an open source alternative to the proprietary Secure Shell software suite offered by SSH Communications Security. (Source: Wikipedia)

After some quick googling, I stumbled across ZingerSoft’s ISSH iPad app, which offered the opportunity to do just that. Some of the features:

Launch new connections or close existing ones from within the terminal
Optional split screen in portrait mode
Has the option to adjust the terminal size by fit or a standard number of columns
Assign any active connection to any split screen window
X Server/VNC mousepad widget has a user-adjustable location
X Server/VNC view has a “chromeless” option

Apparently, ISSH is pretty popular:

A full-featured SSH and Telnet emulator of VT100, VT102, VT220, ANSI, and xterm terminals integrated with a tunneled VNC client, RDP client and an X server.

As you can see from the screenshot above, it’s pretty easy to add a new server configuration…and, here’s what that screen looks like:

Great stuff…controlling an UbuntuLinux server from an iPad. It’s blasphemy!

Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

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