HowTo: RaspberryPi – Control the RaspberryPi via SSH

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The big advantage of the RaspberryPi is not only that it is small, compact and relatively inexpensive, but also that it is child's play to operate remotely from another computer.
In principle, there are two ways to do this:
Once by means of the software "VNC" which fetches the desktop of the RasPi over the network or also Internet on your computer. So you can control your RasPi with mouse and keyboard like you are used to from Windows. But you need a fast (internet) connection between your RasPi and your computer to control your RasPi.

Secondly, there is the possibility to use the SSH protocol to control your RasPi.
You control the RasPi only via text commands. This is a bit unusual at the beginning, because you can't just "click around" and search for functions.
You have to know most of the commands. This is a bit daunting, especially at the beginning.
Therefore I have created an overview of the most common RasPi or Linux commands with examples: RaspberryPI – Commands Cheat Sheet

In this article I explain you how to connect to your RasPi with the program "PuTTy"(which uses the SSH protocol).

Safety instructions

I know the following notes are always kind of annoying and seem unnecessary. Unfortunately, many people who knew "better" have lost eyes, fingers or other things due to carelessness or injured themselves. Data loss is almost negligible in comparison, but even these can be really annoying. Therefore, please take five minutes to read the safety instructions. Because even the coolest project is not worth injury or other trouble.
https://www.nerdiy.de/sicherheitshinweise/

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Requirements

Helpful articles:
Before you start with the article you should prepare the RaspberryPi so that it is accessible via the network and controllable via SSH.

The following three articles describe what needs to be done to prepare the RaspberryPi:
RaspberryPi – setup for nerdiys!
RaspberryPi – The first configuration!
RaspberryPi – Control the RaspberryPi via SSH

Required tool:
-no-

Required material:

In the following list you will find all the parts you need to implement this article.

Download the right software

To connect to the RasPi via SSH protocol you have to download the program "PuTTy" first. It is installed under: www.putty.org/ offered for download.
You need from there from the category "MSI(Windows Installer)" the file from the column "64 bit".
Only if your computer is a bit older you should take the "32bit" version.
If you are not yet familiar with downloads, I recommend this blog article: Downloads/Uploads - How the files come from the Internet and also disappear there again.
There, many basics are explained in detail once again.

"Install "PuTTy

After you have downloaded the installation package for PuTTy, this must of course also be installed.
If you are not familiar with installing a program, I recommend this blog article: Install programs
There, many basics are explained in detail once again.

Connect PuTTy with the RasPi

After you have installed PuTTy you can start it. A dialog window with the title "PuTTy Configuration" opens. This looks complicated at first but you don't need much of it to connect to your RasPi. To connect to your RasPi you have to enter the IP address of your RasPi under "Host Name(or IP address)". If you don't know the IP address of your RasPi and how to find it out, then I recommend this article: Display/find out the IP address of the devices in the network
After you have entered the IP address in the text field, I recommend you to save it. You do this by entering a name in the text field "Saved Sessions". I used the name "RasPi" as you can see on the picture. After you have entered a name click on "Save" and the IP address will be saved with the specified name "RasPi" in the field below.
Now you can see that the name you entered earlier appears in the list below the text field. In this case the name "RasPI" was added to the list. So you don't need to enter the IP address every time you start PuTTy, just click on the name of the RasPi you want to connect to. PuTTy will then automatically search for the corresponding IP address and connect to the RasPi. But we are not that far yet: To connect to the RasPi click on "Open".
A window with a black background will open, followed by a warning. This warning informs you about a potential security risk. This warning indicates that the key sent by the RasPi for the connection encryption does not match the one in the Putty configuration. This is not surprising, because you are connecting to your RasPi for the first time. As soon as you click on "Yes" the key is exchanged again. With the next (and all coming) connections the error message should not appear anymore.
You can confirm this warning with "Yes". The window will close and you will see the black window again. This window is called "Console". Via the console you can now communicate with the RasPi via text commands and tell it what to do or not to do.

Log in to the Rasp Pi

But before you can enter real commands you have to verify your access rights. But since you know the login data of your RasPi this is no problem. In the console you will be asked by "login as:" to specify a user under which you want to log in. On the RasPi or by Raspian the user "pi" is preinstalled by default. So you enter "pi" and press Enter. The console or the RasPi connected to it will ask you for the password. If you have changed this password only you know it. If you haven't changed it yet, the default password is "raspberry". Don't be irritated that the cursor doesn't move when typing the password. This is just a security feature. (If you are still using the default password: Please remember that this is a potential security risk. You can find out how to change the password in this article: RaspberryPI – Commands Cheat Sheet )
After you have entered the correct password and confirmed it with Enter, you will be welcomed with a small welcome text and have the possibility to enter your first commands.
I have summarized what these could be, for example, in this article: RaspberryPI – Commands Cheat Sheet

So now you know how to connect to the RasPi via PuTTy or SSH.
If you also want to know how to control the RasPi via VNC - that is via a graphical interface with mouse and keyboard - I recommend this article: RaspberryPi - Controlling the RaspberryPi via VNC

Have fun with the project

I hope everything worked as described for you. If not or you have questions or suggestions please let me know in the comments. I will then add this to the article if necessary.
Ideas for new projects are always welcome. 🙂

PS Many of these projects - especially the hardware projects - cost a lot of time and money. Of course I do this because I enjoy it, but if you think it's cool that I share the information with you, I would be happy about a small donation to the coffee fund. 🙂

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