Creating an SSH key - how it works

An SSH key is needed if you want to remotely control another computer. Depending on whether you are using a Mac or a computer with Windows as operating system, the procedure to create the key varies.

How to create SSH key on Mac

SSH stands for Secure Shell and allows you to remotely control another computer. But for this to work, you need an SSH key for public key authentication. This consists of a public and a private key and is created as follows:

1. If you are using a Mac, first open the Terminal on it by going to the "/Program Files/Utilities" folder.
2. Type the command "ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096" there and save the created key file in a new folder. Confirm your entry afterwards with the "Enter" key.
3. If you want, you can now still set a password and confirm it. Alternatively, simply skip the password creation by pressing the "Enter" key.
4. The creation of the SSH key is now complete and you will find the key in the previously created folder.

Create SSH key: The procedure is on the Windows PC

It is also possible to create an SSH key under Windows. However, here you still need the tool "PuTTY". If you have PuTTY installed, please open the included PuTTYgen and enter "RSA" and a bit length of 4,096 as parameters. Then click on "Generate" and move the mouse over the area below the bar until the generation is finished. Now set a password for the SSH key and save it by clicking on "Save Public Key" or "Save Private Key".