Ever wonder how programmers and IT folks connect to their computers from halfway around the world, tapping away like it’s magic? The answer is something called SSH. If you’ve ever seen someone type “ssh user@server” in a movie or YouTube tutorial and thought, “Okay, but what’s actually happening there?” — this post is for you.

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SSH stands for Secure Shell. At its core, it’s a way to control a computer (like a server or a Raspberry Pi) that’s not right in front of you. But unlike shouting your password across the internet for everyone to hear, SSH keeps things super private.

Think of it as a private phone call with your computer, where only you and the computer can understand what’s being said. Everyone else just hears gibberish.

So, how does SSH actually work? Here’s the simple version:

When you open your terminal and type:

ssh [email protected]

your computer says, “Hi, are you really myserver.com?” The server replies, “Yep, here’s my ID” (called a public key). Your computer checks if this ID is legit (usually remembering what it saw last time to prevent imposters).

Quick tip: This is why you sometimes get scary warnings if the server’s ID suddenly changes. It’s like your friend…