what is ssh-sgent?

[mike]

Chris G wrote:
> On Sun, May 04, 2008 at 03:29:16PM +0200, John L Fjellstad wrote:
>   
>> John K Masters <johnmasters at oxtedonline.net> writes:
>>
>>     
>>> Should be fine. As I said ssh-agent gets installed when you install ssh.
>>> However, if you are not using a service whether ssh or whatever then it
>>> is probably best to turn it off.
>>>       
>> ssh client and server is different packages.  ssh client, AFAIK, gets
>> installed in the standard installation.  Server is not. ssh-agent is
>> part of the client (the client uses it to cache the password).  i'm not
>> sure turning off ssh-agent is a good idea if you are using the ssh client
>>
>>     
> I don't understand this bit about whether it's "a good idea" to turn
> off ssh agent.  Unless you know about it and explicitly set things up
> to use it up ssh-agent does nothing for you. 
>
> If ssh-agent isn't there ssh is no less secure, in fact it's rather more
> secure because you're forced to enter your passphrase every time you do
> an ssh login.
>
>   
SSh is an excellant tool when not at home we have used this to get and 
send Email files direct from a machine in the UK while being in Canada 
it is possible to completely control your machine from anywhere.