Sorry you guyz if this is such a bonhead question, but I've never been able
to understand encyption and public keys and the like. Here's where I'm
confused.
I understand ssh basically just encrypts transfers. Ever since I have used
it, I have used password authentication. I was thinking (and after trying
to find the answer myself) that using public key authentication would allow
me to connect to and from my servers without entering passwords. What I did
was in the Windows client of ssh (2.4), i generated a key pair and then
subsequently uploaded the public key. But everytime I try to connect with
public key authentication enabled, it still asks for a password with "The
remote host is willing to accept this key for authentication. Please enter
the passphrase for the private key". Am I doing something wrong, or am I
just wrong in thinking that I'll never have to enter a password.
The way I understand it, and hopefully someone can clear this up for me, is
host keys are simply to ensure that a host is who they say they are. User
keys are to ensure that the user is who they say they are. I know giving me
a basic tutorial on public key authentication is kinda out of the question
here, but someone might be willing to help me off list. I have been doing
linux for a long time now, but am just now trying to learn about
authentication measures other than password.
Am I right in thinking that I'll need public key authentication to set up a
PPP tunnel through SSH automatically at linux startup? I'd like to do a
sort of VPN from home to work, that's why I'm looking in to this.
And one other thing (I know you all are tired of reading this, but please),
is PPP through SSH a reliable means of tunneling? I have to private
networks on 192.168.x.x address range and I need to connect them over the
net (VPN). Are CIPE or IPsec better implementations of VPN? What can I
expect from PPP through SSH (performance wise, etc).
Thanks a lot guyz. I've been monitoring the list lately but haven't really
grasped most of it.
