SSH, or Secure Shell, is a network protocol that's used to connect to a web server and conduct different tasks using a command line. The protocol is used by many knowledgeable users, for the reason that the info transmitted over it is encrypted, so it may not be intercepted on the way by a third party. SSH access could be employed for lots of things with regards to the type of website hosting account. With a shared hosting account, in particular, SSH is one of the ways to import/export a database or to upload a file when the server allows it. In case you have a virtual or a dedicated server, SSH could be used for virtually everything - you may install software or restart particular services like the web server or the database server which run on the machine. SSH is employed mostly with UNIX-like Platforms, but there are clients which allow you to employ the protocol if your personal computer is using a different OS as well. The connection is established on TCP port 22 by default and the remote server always listens for incoming connections on that port although many service providers change it for security reasons.