SSH (Secure SHell) is a great way to access a remote or headless Raspberry Pi across a network. It does this via a text terminal (so you are back in the old days!) on your local PC.
Windows PC’s don’t generally have SSH as part of the Operating System, so you have to install software to do this. A popular way to do this is via PuTTY, but personally I prefer a slight variant of this called ExtraPuTTY (this one goes up to 11..), but they are broadly similar.
After installation, run ExtraPuTTY / PuTTY and start a new Session. Leave everything as their defaults and just put in the IP address of your Raspberry Pi (if you don’t know the IP Address see the article “Finding Your Raspberry Pi On a Network From A PC” that helps you discover it).
For example: 192.168.1.128
This opens a terminal window with a login prompt:
(Note I have configured my ExtraPuTTY for green text on black – I’m pretending to be a hacker, despite the fact that I can only type with 2 fingers. Probably get thrown out of the Hacker’s Guild for that).
At the login prompt put in the User ID – default “pi” and you’ll be prompted for a password – default “raspberry“.
If this is your first time accessing this Raspberry Pi then you’ll get a security alert:
If you suspect that a sweaty Russian bloke in a vest, masquerading as a young woman, has hijacked your system and is pretending to be that IP address, then you should click “Cancel”, otherwise just click “Yes”.
That’s it! You’re good to go…