PuTTYFor the computer geeks or, to put it mildly, for the most talented of the computer users, there are no choices to pick from when it comes down to SSH clients. “A hands down winner” is what they say about it and judging from all the attention and amount of positive reviews it raked up there is no doubt that it is among the best on the market.
PuTTY's been around for a long time and passed through lots of beta stages that stretched over a period of 10 years according to the
official changelog of the program, which lists the latest version (0.60) as also being in beta.
During the 10-year period PuTTY's development suffered 3 major “pauses” (no new version has been published) that sum up a stall of 6 years, so the app actually has a 4-year period of active development. If the pattern is correct, we should enjoy a new version this year since the latest one dates from 2007 (April 29th, to be more specific).
So, with 2 years passing by since its latest release, PuTTY makes the fifth oldie on our list. It keeps on providing secure means to run a remote session on a computer, over a network without too much hassle, even from a Windows 7 platform. Basically, the app lets you send commands to a remote console and receive its feedback.
PuTTY is not a tool for everybody, that's for sure, but those who need fast and secure access to remote consoles can rely on its services. All connections are encrypted and no password will be saved in its settings. As for connection security, PuTTY uses SSH (secure shell) protocol, which uses strong cryptography to protect your connection against unauthorized listening or hijacking.
Also, no trace of the login credentials is to be found on the local machine because they will not be saved, so there is nothing to worry about. This free SSH, Telnet and Rlogin client alerts you on connecting to a server via SSH for the first time by showing the host key, thus preventing spoof attacks. If the key is the one you expect, there is no problem.
Sessions are the only ones that are saved in PuTYY in order to make connection easier and let you skip typing in the remote address yourself. Besides the settings available in the configuration window, the application will not save any sensitive data for security reasons. And besides the GUI you have for setting the program up all the work will be done in a terminal window.
Of course a set of options such as starting a new session, duplicating the current one, resetting the terminal or calling on the configuration window is possible by simply right clicking on the title bar. PuTTY makes for a great client that provides secure connecting and huge documentation to help you with the software.
PuTTY was released ten years ago, in a time when even XP hadn't received its first service pack (it hadn't even been launched yet), and yet it still does a great job in a time with Windows 7 around the corner.
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