What in Gods name does a shell account do ?

[Anonymous]

Hello i have recently found my self being offered free shells from a wide variety of websites, even though i am not really sure what a shell account really is and what it is used for.

i would be gratefull if one of you fine people would explain to me like i was a 2 year old the use of a shell account.

And the advantages of having a shell A/C

Thank you

[Dolda2000]

I don't think that you would have any use of a shell account. I'm guessing that those shell accounts that you're referring to is simply a user account on a UNIX/Linux box somewhere n the world, to which you can log in (with telnet or ssh), and do stuff. You know, a shell is what you get if you open a console.

[mOdEtWo]

You can run irc bots, psyBNC, web scripts etc. from a shell account. Depends on what your shell provider gives you access to do tho.

[l_Kriss]

yes, and some ISP's give out free shell's when you buy from them.

[jasonlambert]

what ever you do, make sure you DO NOT USE A PASSWORD YOU USE ELSEWARE when signing up for one of these accounts!

Shell accounts attract a lot of script kiddies, you dont want have your password nicked because of a lazy admin.

Jason

[Cadillac84]

what ever you do, make sure you DO NOT USE A PASSWORD YOU USE ELSEWARE when signing up for one of these accounts!

Shell accounts attract a lot of script kiddies, you dont want have your password nicked because of a lazy admin.

Jason

WOW! That was some good advice! (I'm serious!) We DO tend to have our favorite pw -- even people who are forced to change pw every so often and can't repeat, will use a cycle of three or four round-robin.

I may think this through and decide to go to some of my more important places and put a more secure pw in place.

Thanks, Jason!

[Dolda2000]

If you can use SSH, then don't use a password at all. You should use public key authentication instead in that case. Providing that the server accepts public key authentication, that is; unfortunately, not all do, but if they do, it is incredibly secure.

[thedren]

A shell lets you access an operating system. In the case of internet based shells it's usually via telnet/ssh connection. A good example of a shell is windows explorer, another good example of a shell is bash (a unix based command line shell which is a pretty common on shell providers).

Some ISP's will give you a free shell when you buy from them, generally this doesn't happen anymore. Shells attract script kiddies, which is a huge risk for providers, due to the fact that providers give people access to the internet through theirr local networks.

A little bit of paranoia goes a long way, and you have should have a unique password for every service you use. Of course we're all "human", none of us want to keep track of a gazillion passwords. Just be careful and pick secure passwords, and always use encrypted connections.

For increased security you can use public key authentication, it is really quite wonderful. The biggest drawback of it is that when it comes to shells generally the point of a shell is that you can access it anywhere! Most of us don't have a USB key to carry around our personal key . It can be a pain if your somewhere else and you want to hop on your shell for a minute and you don't have your public key handy.

[scm]

A good example of a shell is windows explorer,

You must have a different definition of "good" than I use.

[thedren]

You must have a different definition of "good" than I use.

In the context above, "good", was meant used to make a comparison with something well known for the sake of understanding.

Unfortunately "windows explorer" is slightly more popular than most *nix shells .