
12 Add-Ons for PuTTY - iamelgringo
http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2008/08/turbocharge-putty-with-12-powerful-add-ons-software-for-geeks-3/
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jhancock
they missed one... "Collaborative PuTTY" - ShellShadow ...
<http://shellshadow.com>

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nikils
isnt shellshadow similar to GNU screen ?

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jhancock
not at all. GNU screen requires changes to your server. Also you would need to
change screen and run it as root unless you're really smart (in which case you
wouldn't need support now would you?).

Screen requires you grant access to both users to the server (auth issues),
that both users can connect to the server (firewall issues), and doesn't
provide any protection or auditing for the "master user".

In short, if you want simple and secure server support, you absolutely do not
want to use a hacked GNU Screen.

Your question is somewhat analogous to saying, "why would I want to use
GoToMyPC, WebEx, or CrossLoop instead of just installing and configuring VNC
for free?"

ShellShadow is the simple, secure-by-default way to do server support that
does not require any changes to your server, does not require you to give out
auth credentials to your server, and plays well with firewalls.

<http://shellshadow.com> ;)

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nikils
i have used screen, i dont think it requires root access. see wikipedia
article <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Screen>, it allows screen sharing.

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jhancock
Screen is a great tool, I use it regularly myself. ShellShadow is not a
replacement for screen and screen's "collaboration" features are secondary to
the tool's original purpose. There are problems with using screen for
collaboration...

...how does the "other person" access the screen? You have to give them a id
and password to the server, right? and if you are doing SSH auth properly, you
shouldn't allow password access, you should be using keys. So you have to set
up a public/private key pair for a temporary support technician if your server
is secured properly, right? Ok, now they can login without you, right? How do
you control this second user's interaction? How do you audit what the support
tech did and differentiate that I/O from what you did?

ok, lets assume you actually want to do the above. Now, is this server
accessible from where the support person is? If your server is inside a
corporate firewall, it isn't, right? If you have SSHd locked down well, it
shouldn't allows access from unknown IP addresses, so they won't be able to
get into your shared "screen".

I could go on. The bottom line is "screen" works fine for sharing your
terminal session if both users have login access to the server and the shared
interaction is highly trusted, informal, and you have the time/skills to
administer this solution.

ShellShadow works with zero mods to the server and you do not have to give
login credentials to the support tech. With ShellShadow, we relay/collaborate
from the terminal "client". The terminal "service" (SSH, telnet, etc) is
unaware of the interaction.

Watch the flash demo linked from the home page to see the distinction.
<http://shellshadow.com/flash_demo>

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graywh
The article title calls them add-ons, but have are modified/patched versions.

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jhancock
The PuTTY code base is not structured for "add-ons". You can only take the
source and modify and release something new.

I can say from my experience developing <http://shellshadow.com> that the
PuTTY source is readable, lightwieght and well structured. Many thanks to
Simon Tatham for such a simple and long-lived tool!!!

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cosmo7
I've been using Poderosa. I started using it when Putty turned out to not like
Vista, but now I use it on XP as well.

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litewulf
I use putty on vista, so your statement worries me. What exactly didn't work?
Should I be afraid that my SSH IS SUBTLY BROKEN?!

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ivank
PuTTY works perfectly on Vista 64 here, with DEP on.

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nick5768
Very cool, thanks!

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trezor
Of all of these I only knew about PuTTYtray (which I'm using) and PocketPuTTY
(which never ran on my non-touchscreen Windows Mobile).

Cool stuff.

