SSH client for windows SSHPro Editor's Review

SSH comes from Secure SHell and is the industry standard for remote logins. It is supposed to provide secure encrypted communications between two untrusted hosts over an insecure network. That's why there are so many SSH clients available. I will show you the features that SSHPro 3.0 has and their utility.

It seems to me that the developers of SSHPro tried to keep it simple and did a great job. The software has all the functionality needed for a SSH client and a few extra features which improve its rating. One of the extra features, which I found to be very useful is port forwarding through the secure channel. Port forwarding can be used to access systems inside the network where the SSH server is running.

Supported connection protocols are Telnet, SSH1 and SSH2. It's designed to integrate the Windows operating into TCP/IP network environments and also supports data compression, logging, ciphers and IPv6. By using the Keyboard Mapping option, you can load, change (re-define keys and create a new keyboard layout), and save any keyboard definition file. I wanted to list the content of the current directory just by pressing F1. To accomplish this I defined it, from SSHPro's settings dialog, as "ls0x0D". "ls" is the UNIX command for listing a directory, and "0x0D" is the ASCII code of the ENTER key.

Pluses: Simple, customizable interface.

Drawbacks / flaws:

In conclusion: SSH was developed by people from the open-source community and should be free. SSHPro doesn't cost too much if you think of its features. However, I still prefer to use a free SSH client for logging and executing commands in a remote machine.

version reviewed: 3.0