SSH, or Secure Shell, is a network protocol employed to connect to a web server and execute various tasks through a command line. The protocol is popular with many skilled users, because the information transmitted over it is encrypted, so it cannot be intercepted on the way by a 3rd party. SSH access can be employed for a number of things depending on the type of Internet 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 hosting server allows it. In case you have a virtual or a dedicated server, SSH may be used for pretty much anything - you could install software or restart certain services including the web server or the database server that run on the machine. SSH is used typically with UNIX-like Operating Systems, but there are clients which allow you to employ the protocol if your laptop or computer is running a different Operating System as well. The connection is established on TCP port 22 by default and the remote hosting server always listens for incoming connections on that port although a number of service providers change it for security reasons.
