What are some good SSH Servers for windows? [closed]

Question

Trying to setup an SSH server on Windows Server 2003. What are some good ones? Preferably open source. I plan on using WinSCP as a client so a server which supports the advanced features implemented by that client would be great.

Handbarrow

Rather than close, why not move to ServerFault? – Winifred

This has been asked on server fault already..and closed as off topic... – Coition

mina.apache.org/sshd-project is one of the few that's Open-Source – Worldly

Microsoft recently released its own build of OpenSSH for Windows. On WinSCP site, I've added a guide for setting up SSH/SFTP server on Windows using this Microsoft build of OpenSSH. – Dublin

@MartinPrikryl, does it work as well as bitvise ssh server? – Aristides

List of SFTP servers for Windows can be found at sftp.net/servers – Remonstrant

Answer 1

I've been using Bitvise SSH Server and it's really great. From install to administration it does it all through a GUI so you won't be putting together a sshd_config file. Plus if you use their client, Tunnelier, you get some bonus features (like mapping shares, port forwarding setup up server side, etc.) If you don't use their client it will still work with the Open Source SSH clients.

It's not Open Source and it costs $39.95, but I think it's worth it.

UPDATE 2009-05-21 11:10: The pricing has changed. The current price is $99.95 per install for commercial, but now free for non-commercial/personal use. Here is the current pricing.

Opalescent

Thanks! This worked great. Also, I used their "Tunnelier" client to make a client to server SSH tunnel, and it worked on the first try! – Anaesthetize

Just started using this from Linux for cross platform builds. Great. – Slaver

I love the commercial ssh servers, but windows REALLY needs a native, free SSH server. The cygwin based solves can be a problem on production servers. – Mcgaha

@Jonesome, you can try github.com/PowerShell/Win32-OpenSSH. But its very buggy. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out why its not working, while bitvise ssh worked out of the box. You can check the github repo issues for all the problems with openssh on windows. – Aristides

@Aristides that github thing is the official microsoft ssh server for win server? – Mcgaha

Yes. that is correct. You can also check it by looking at the profiles of the people who are pushing code to the repo.. they are all MS employees.. – Aristides

Answer 2

I agree that cygwin/OpenSSH is the best choice, but its setup can be involved to say the least. Here is a document to get you started though: Installing OpenSSH

Licentious

As of 13 Sep 2012, the maintainer of that page has taken it down. – Pellitory

@Jason-Baker, why do you think cygwin is best? I tried mobassh which is based on cygwin. It had a lot of issues with incorrect encoding.. serverfault.com/questions/901041/…. It also didnt recognize path variables.. didnt have autocompletion etc etc.. – Aristides

bitvise SSH provide almost close to native cmd or powershell promt out of the box.. – Aristides

Answer 3

I've been using Bitvise SSH Server for a number of years. It is a wonderful product and it is easy to setup and maintain. It gives you great control over how users connect to the server with support for security groups.

Dogmatism

It's 2015 and I still use WinSSHd. – Dogmatism

Answer 4

copssh - OpenSSH for Windows

http://www.itefix.no/i2/copssh

Packages essential Cygwin binaries.

Spermatium

<Quote>Copssh is an OpenSSH server and client implementation for Windows systems with an administration GUI. It is a yet another packaging of portable OpenSSH, Cygwin, some popular utilites, plus implementation of some best practices regarding security. You can use Copssh for remote administration of your systems or gathering remote information in a secure way.</Quote> In other words, OpenSSH + GUI [Seems like this saves time on running cygwin setup.exe + configuring OpenSSH server] – Mclellan

Answer 5

OpenSSH is a contender. Looks like it hasn't been updated in a while though.

It's the de facto choice in my opinion. And yes, running under Cygwin is really the nicest method.

Florescence

Answer 6

VanDyke VShell is the best Windows SSH Server I've ever worked with. It is kind of expensive though ($250). If you want a free solution, freeSSHd works okay. The CYGWIN solution is always an option, I've found, however, that it is a lot of work & overhead just to get SSH.

Ergocalciferol

Answer 7

You can run OpenSSH on Cygwin, and even install it as a Windows service.

I once used it this way to easily add backups of a Unix system - it would rsync a bunch of files onto the Windows server, and the Windows server had full tape backups.

Sphery