Skip to content

Logging in to Ponyland (SSH)

You need to have an account first. After you have gotten one, and have set your password, you can use ssh to login onto one of the ponyland servers.

Logging in from within RU network

ssh $username@$server

# E.g:
ssh myusername@cheerilee.science.ru.nl

Logging in without a password

To avoid having to enter your password every time you log in, you can add your SSH public key to the server. If you don't have a ssh public key yet you should generate one. Depending on the algorithm you would like to use, the command is something like:

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096
or 
ssh-keygen -t ecdsa -b 521
This will create the SSH keys in the folder you specified or the default folder: ~/.ssh

Now we need let the Ponyland server (e.g. Cheerilee) know what our public key is. If we used the rsa algorithm and the default folder:

ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub myusername@cheerilee.science.ru.nl
After authenticating the transfer, you can now login to Cheerilee without using a password!

From outside RU network

You cannot access Ponyland directly from outside the RU network. You need to make the ponies think you are inside the RU network. This can be done by setting up a Virtual Private Network.

Security considerations

When using SSH keys, the public key acts as the password, which typically much safer then a normal password. Your private key, however, is stored on your system and has to remain secret at all times. If you use a passwordless key, this means the private key is unencrypted on your system. This is a potential security risk as it could be stolen if an attacker gains access to your system, upon which he/she by extension has potential direct access to remote systems that use that key.

The more secure option is to choose to encrypt your private key with a password upon creation with ssh-keygen. To prevent having to re-enter it every time, you can use your system's keyring manager to hold it in memory for a while, see macOS or Windows instructions.

See also