Have you ever wondered how to connect to a remote host? This guide introduces essential commands for connecting to remote machines. We'll explore three key network protocols: FTP, SCP, and SSH.

FTP/SFTP

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is used to transfer files between a server and a client. SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) is a newer, more secure version of FTP. For this reason, SFTP is the preferred choice whenever possible.

To connect to a remote server using SFTP:

sftp username@server

Once you've entered your password and connected to the remote server, you can use commands like GET or PUT to transfer files. Type help to view all available commands.

SCP

Secure Copy Protocol (SCP) lets you copy files between a server and a client, or between two servers.

To copy a file from a client to a server:

scp hello.txt username@server:/home

To copy a file from a server to a client:

scp username@server:hello.txt /home

To copy a file from one server to another:

scp username@server1:hello.txt username@server2:/home

The SCP command is easy to remember because it works similarly to the cp command:

cp source destination
scp local_file server:directory # copy file from local to server
scp server:file directory # copy file from server to local

SSH

Secure Shell Protocol (SSH) lets you connect to a remote server and run almost any command, not just transfer files. To access the remote server, use the following command:

ssh username@server

After logging in, you can do almost anything to interact with the server.

Conclusion

The three protocols mentioned above are some of the most commonly used for accessing a remote server. There are many other network commands and protocols in use. If you are interested in learning how networks work, you should definitely explore them, such as rsync and SMB. Another useful tool for file transfer is cURL, a command line tool for sending or receiving files that supports numerous protocols.