SSH, which is an abbreviation for Secure Shell, is a network protocol which is used to transfer protected information between a client and a server, which makes it impossible for unauthorized parties to intercept any info. Many tech-savvy users favor SSH mainly because of the improved level of security. The connection is made and the commands are sent via a command line. The offered options depend on the type of Internet hosting service - on a shared server, for instance, files could be moved or deleted, databases could be imported and exported, and archives can be set up or unpacked. On a virtual or a dedicated server, the choices are a lot more - the web server and the database server can be started/stopped/rebooted, server-side software could be set up plus much more. These things are not possible on a shared server, since full root access is required and all the other customers on that server will be affected. Although SSH is employed predominantly with UNIX-like OSs, there are SSH clients for other OSs as well - Windows, Mac OS, and so forth.