Shell-Account
A shell account is a user account on a remote computer, through which the user is given access based on a shell on it.
Use of the term
In gamer slang, the term often refers mainly to the ability to an IRC bouncer or a bot, such as eggdrop execute. Actually, he calls each remote shell access to, including, for example, to a rented server or to a private PC. Specifically, the administration of larger computer networks takes place in the normal case, the computers involved are operated with a suitable operating system, in this way instead. As for users of an operating system that supports the operation by Shell, this ability is granted and every user account on such a system usually this option is available, the term shell account is mainly used outside of this circle of users, for example, users who only for very few tasks require shell access to another computer.
Operating Systems with Shell support
The following operating systems support the operation of the computer from a remote location via a shell. The list is not exhaustive; the entries are exemplary.
- Traditional multi-user operating systems such as UNIX and its modern derivatives, such as Solaris
- Each modern Unix-like operating system such as GNU / Linux, Mac OS X and other members of the BSD family
- Windows using Cygwin
Software used
On the server side a SSH implementation is mainly used today. The encrypted SSH protocol has thereby replaced older protocols such as RSH. Today, however, common in rare cases is Telnet. This is also an unencrypted connection, but with authentication based on a user account. With advent of encrypted protocols due to greater data security awareness in the user community, these protocols are generally considered unsafe. Also, SSH provides convenience features that are missing from the other protocols, so among other things, the possibility of authentication keys, removing the manual password entry is required. Both the server and client - side software for all of these protocols is usually under Unix-like operating systems. A free SSH implementation, for example, OpenSSH.
On the client side there is also special, integrated into the software currently in use graphical interfaces. An example of such client software is PuTTY, which is available free of charge for many popular operating systems.
Commercial Offers
The coveted among gamers shell accounts for the purpose of operating a bouncer or Eggdrops are usually available commercially based on Linux. One reason for this could be the wide distribution of this operating system be, whereby the most important necessary software is available.
Outside of the gaming world, there are other niches. Scientifically -oriented activities such as the Sun Grid of the American IT company Sun Microsystems, however, waive often direct shell access, as the architecture used for this purpose are not always suitable.