Configure ssh public Keys with PuTTY

• Use Puttygen to generate an ssh2 RSA keypair

• Save both the public and private keys to disk

• Point PuTTY at the private key

Change Settings -> Connection -> SSH -> Auth
Be sure to save the default configuration afterwards.

• To avoid typing your password every time, run pageant

Without PuTTY configured correctly and Pageant running, your login will fall back to asking for a password. Keys do not autoload themselves in Pageant either, you specifically add them on the command line like so:

  c:\bin\pageant.exe c:\homedir\private.ppk

• Configure the specific user's directory on the server: OpenSSH-style sshd

Note: tested OK on AIX 4.3+, HPUX 11+, and Linux (Redhat 7.1+, Fedora Core 1+)
Easy way:

  scp -r .ssh newserver:

  mkdir ~/.ssh
  chmod 700 ~/.ssh
  vi ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
    copy and paste in the entire contents of the 
    "public key for pasting into OpenSSH authorized_keys file:" box
  chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
  test; if this does not work, especially on older servers, you may need to:
    mv ~/.ssh/authorized_keys ~/.ssh/authorized_keys2
    (which is deprecated but does seem to help for old sshd's)

• Configure the specific user's directory on the server: ssh.com-style sshd

Note: tested OK on Tru64 v5.1+
Easy way:

  scp -r .ssh2 newserver:

  mkdir ~/.ssh2
  chmod 700 ~/.ssh2
  vi ~/.ssh2/authorization
    copy and paste in the entire contents of the 
    "public key for pasting into OpenSSH authorized_keys file:" box
    add a line: "key pubkey.filename" as the second line
  chmod 600 ~/.ssh2/authorization
  test

  mkdir ~/.ssh2
  chmod 700 ~/.ssh2
  vi ~/.ssh2/authorization
    add a line: "key pubkey.filename" as the second line
  vi ~/.ssh2/pubkey.filename
    copy and paste in the entire contents of the 
    "public key for pasting into OpenSSH authorized_keys file:" box
  chmod 600 ~/.ssh2/authorization
  test

• Proper permissions are necessary on the server directories and filenames. Incorrect permissions will cause no end of strange failures and non-working results.

  mode  file
  ============================
  0750  ~/   (0755 seems OK also.  *NOT* 77x or 777 :-) 
  0700  ~/.ssh
  0600  ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
  0600  ~/.ssh/authorized_keys2
  0700  ~/.ssh2
  0600  ~/.ssh2/authorization
  0600  ~/.ssh2/pubkey.filename