Master secure connections and stay connected
Complete the setup wizard first to get the most from these lessons.
Go to SSH Into Your VPSMark complete to track your learning progress.
Understand how to stay connected to your VPS.
SSH (Secure Shell) is how you're connected to this VPS right now.
It's an encrypted tunnel between your laptop and this server.
Watch the handshake: key exchange, authentication, and tunnel establishment
Your VPS connection happened in two stages:
When you first created your VPS, you connected as root with a password
ssh root@YOUR_SERVER_IPThe installer copied your SSH key, so now you connect securely
ssh -i ~/.ssh/acfs_ed25519 ubuntu@YOUR_SERVER_IPsshThe command-i ~/.ssh/acfs_ed25519Your private keyubuntuYour regular user (safer than root)@YOUR_SERVER_IPThe server addressYou're now using key-based authentication:
Stays on your laptop at ~/.ssh/acfs_ed25519
Lives on the VPS at ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
This is more secure than passwords and lets you connect without typing anything.
Add this to your laptop's ~/.ssh/config:
Host *ServerAliveInterval 60ServerAliveCountMax 3
This sends keepalive packets every 60 seconds.
On your laptop, add to ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc:
alias vps='ssh -i ~/.ssh/acfs_ed25519 ubuntu@YOUR_SERVER_IP'
Then just type vps to connect!
Where does your private key live?
~/.ssh/acfs_ed25519 on your laptop
What happens if SSH drops?
Reconnect; tmux saves your work
What's the quick way to reconnect?
Use an alias
Try these commands to confirm your SSH setup is working:
1# Check your current user (should say "ubuntu")2$ whoami34# Check how long you've been connected5$ w67# View the public keys authorized to access this account8$ cat ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
ssh-ed25519), you know the setup worked!