Sam, The command 'ps -ef' creates a bunch of output (a list of processes and their stats). The '|' (pipe) takes that output and feeds it to 'grep sshd'. 'grep sshd' looks at that output and prints lines containing the text 'sshd'. Unfortunately, the only process grep in that output containing the search text was the 'grep' process itself, so 'sshd' is not running. If this is a Red Hat linux install, run this (as root): chkconfig --list sshd and you'll probably see either this: error reading information on service sshd: No such file or directory or this: sshd 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off If you see the error message you'll have to find that CD. If you see the 'sshd ...' output, run these commands (as root): chkconfig --level 2345 sshd on service sshd start to configure 'sshd' to start at boot time, and then to start it up right now. Then try to connect with 'putty'. Good luck, Troy >>> smac at visi.com 08/20/03 10:24AM >>> No I don't have a fire wall running (thank you James Spinti) I did (as root) ps -ef grep | sshd (thank you Johnny Fulcrum) results root 27813 27782 0:09:04 tty1 00:00:00: grep sshd This is where I get lost because I don't know how to interpret the output of grep so... I did ps -ef | more This displayed all the processes, "sshd" is not on the list. So I do not have "sshd" running. Where did I put that CD... _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota http://www.mn-linux.org tclug-list at mn-linux.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list