[ubuntu-uk] Remote support for family & friends

[Jon Spriggs]

SSH keys are created by producing a pair of cryptographically equivelent
numbers with a size of (usually) 1024 or 2048 bits (I think!) long. When
performing a complex equation, the result of encrypting one with the other
returns the same value. It is not linked to a hardware value.

You can share the same private key around all the machines you own and
trust, and put the public key into ~/.ssh/authorized_keys of the accounts
you are trusted to access. Typically, I create a new account with my
username the same everywhere, but you may want to set it up differently.

Remember, network access (such as port forwarding the VNC port) does not
require you to be in the same account as the user. If you need to act as the
user, you can login with your account and type

sudo su - USERNAME

where username is the person you are supporting. The hyphen in the su
command means "pretend I just logged in as them".

If you are supporting a lot of machines, I'd start looking at creating a
~/.ssh/config file, but from the sounds of things, that's a while off yet!

All the best,
-- 
Jon "The Nice Guy" Spriggs
On 25 Mar 2011 08:51, <bodsda at googlemail.com> wrote:
> I believe ssh keys are generated from hardware I'd's, things like mac
address etc.
>
> So I would expect if you created a new users, the old key would still
work.
>
> Bodsda
> Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Byte Soup <bytesoup at gmail.com>
> Sender: ubuntu-uk-bounces at lists.ubuntu.com
> Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2011 08:47:38
> To: UK Ubuntu Talk<ubuntu-uk at lists.ubuntu.com>
> Reply-To: UK Ubuntu Talk <ubuntu-uk at lists.ubuntu.com>
> Subject: Re: [ubuntu-uk] Remote support for family & friends
>
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