SSH Keys and Windows XP/7

[Jayce]

Hello hello! I'm going to throw some Linux talk at you guys with a Windows based agenda. I am setting up a backup server at my house. The goal is to have family members back up to it automatically without them having to initiate the backup process. I have a domain set up, ports forwarded, etc. My family members mostly use Ubuntu, however a few use XP and there's a W7 laptop floating around. That's where I hit the wall with confusion.

In Linux, here's what I do:

ssh-keygen (creates the ssh keys)
ssh-copy-id jayce@myserver (copies the public key to server for authentication purposes)

This enables my two Linux boxes to communicate with backup intensions in mind.

The punch line: How do I do this with an XP or 7 client?

 

[Jayce]

So... Nothing? No back ups on windows with ssh based authentication? Nadda?

 

[office politics]

i would look for a windows port.


we use this for key encryption in the office. gpg keys tho.

Gpg4win - Secure email and file encryption with GnuPG for Windows


try this maybe? http://sshwindows.sourceforge.net/

 

[Jayce]

I actually came across that earlier on. Some users I spoke to reported a mixed batch of opinions on it. I actually think I'm going to back seat this idea. I was trying to be a bit more efficient and provide family members with the convenience of these backups, but it'll probably be easier to just drop in a Linux box in their basement and let it do what my other file server was doing when I was living at home. After all, the speeds I'd get across the WAN if my brothers downloaded a few gig in torrents would be really crazy. I was happy to see how easy it was to do these offsite backups with Linux to Linux, but mixing different chefs in the kitchen doesn't always pan out so well... Since I'm dealing with a mixed environment, well, that attributes to the other half of the reasoning behind back seating the idea. I would have loved to seen it work, even if it was slow, but sometimes you just need a logical solution, which in this case screams LAN-based NAS.

 

[Jayce]

I've been through so many different applications, and none just flat out work the way I'd expect. Gah. I think I pretty much have to choke it up that without buying some enterprise level software, or doing a straight Win-to-Win or Lin-to-Lin over WAN backups, I may have to back seat this. Logically speaking, the speeds that we get from their place to mine for backing up doesn't make the most sense, as things just take very long. Just by renaming a large music directory would force the entire directory to re-sync... do you have any idea how big Pink Floyd's discography is? Ouch...

At any rate, I really wanted to make this work (almost just for the fun of it, even if it wasn't entirely practical when it came to the lack of WAN speed with high volume data transfers). If only Windows supported Rsync and SSH (which are both pretty much amazing tools) we'd have a home run, but we don't always live in a perfect world. Luckily I do have a low powered spare box I can rig up and drop in the corner of their basement. What's funny with that is... I could probably still replicate their data off of that NAS (being nix based) over to mine... but that's just crazy overkill talk...