SSH into Raspberry Pi

I generally log into my Raspberry Pi via SSH, or Secure Shell to give it its full name. This allows command line access, to your Raspberry Pi, from another computer. Although it is possible to SSH into the Raspberry Pi from anywhere in the world, and I do, this post only covers SSH access over the local network. I will cover remote connection in a future blog post.

Although this does not give access to a GUI (Graphical User Interface), having access to the command line generally allows me to do 95% of what I need to do. The other 5% I could probably do through SSH, but sometimes you can't beat the comfort of a GUI. :-)

First of all you need to know the IP address of the Raspberry Pi you are wanting to log into. If you are unsure how to find this, then read my blog post explaining how you can do this remotely using an excellent tool called nmap.

Blog post explaining how to remotely find IP addresses using nmap.

To SSH into your Raspberry Pi from a Linux or Apple Mac computer this is very easy. You can just type your username and IP address into the command line using the following format:

ssh username@IPaddress

Ensure you substitute username with the username you are wanting to log into the remote computer with. The IP address should take the format 192.168.1.66

You may get a message explaining that the authenticity of the host cannot be established, and if you are sure you want to continue connecting.  You will only see this message the first time you SSH into your Raspberry Pi. Simply type yes.

You will then be asked for your password, enter the password for the username you are trying to connect with.

For windows this is a little more tricky to set up as it requires an additional piece of software called PuTTY. However once installed this is really simple to use.

First go to the PuTTY website, www.putty.org, download and install the software.

Once installed load PuTTY

• Under Host Name (or IP address) type in the IP address you would like to connect to.
• Select the SSH radio button.
• In the box under Saved Sessions type in a name to identify this computer, such as Raspberry Pi, and then click Save.
• Clicking on Open should now start your SSH session.

Next time you want to SSH into your Raspberry Pi you just need to load PuTTY, click on the saved session to highlight it and then click Open. Once you have typed in your password, when asked, you have remote access to your Raspberry Pi.