How to Enable SSH on Debian 10

Enable SSH on Debian 10

SSH stands for Secure Shell Service which allows secure remote login and other network operations. In this tutorial, you will learn how to enable SSH on Debian Desktop. By using ssh you can connect to your computer remotely, access files and perform administrative tasks.

Prerequisites

Before you start to enable SSH on Debian 10. You must have the non-root user account on your server with sudo privileges.

Install SSH on Debian

Here you will install SSH from the Debian repository. It’s very much easier to install SSH on Debian.

Update the apt package manager index by typing the following command.

sudo apt update

You will need to install OpenSSH-Server (OpenBSD Secure Shell) which is available in Debian universal repository. Type following command to install OpenSSH Server.

sudo apt install openssh-server

Now you will get prompt for the password, just enter the password.

When you install ssh it will be automatically started. To confirm the installation type following command in a terminal, it will print the status of ssh service.

sudo systemctl status ssh

Output should be

Output
    Active: active (running) :

Now press q to go back to the terminal.

Editing SSH Configuration File

You can edit the ssh configuration according to your requirements. To edit SSH configuration enter the following command.

sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

If you have not installed nano then you can also use Gedit Text Editor which comes by default in Debian.

sudo gedit /etc/ssh/sshd_config

After editing file save and close Gedit.

Using SSH With LAN

If you want to connect your Debian Desktop in LAN then you should enter the following command in terminal

ssh [email protected]

Replace username with your Debian Desktop username and replace the IP address with the IP Address of the machine you want to connect.

To get the IP address of machine enter following command

ifconfig

Once you get IP address then you can connect by typing

ssh [email protected]

When you are connecting the first time it will prompt you an alert. Enter “yes” to continue.

Now you should enter the password of the machine which you want to connect and press Enter.

Using SSH With Internet

First, you will need to know the public IP address of the machine you want to connect. You can check it by entering the following command.

curl ipinfo.io/ip

now enter the following command to connect to your machine

ssh [email protected]_ip_address

NOTE: As you are exposing your machine to the internet you will need to configure the router to accept SSH traffic.

Basic Operations In SSH

To start SSH service enter following command

sudo systemctl start ssh

To stop ssh service enter following command

sudo systemctl stop ssh

Enable SSH service by typing

sudo systemctl enable ssh

Disable SSH service by typing

sudo systemctl enable ssh

Conclusion

Here you have learned to enable SSH on Debian 10 successfully. If you have any queries don’t forget to comment below.