SSH, or Secure Shell, is a network protocol that's used to connect to a server and conduct various tasks using a command line. The protocol is popular with many experienced users, since the info transmitted over it is encrypted, so it cannot be intercepted on the way by a 3rd party. SSH access may be used for a variety of things with regards to the type of web hosting account. With a shared hosting account, in particular, SSH is among the ways to import/export a database or to upload a file if the website hosting server permits it. In case you have a virtual or a dedicated server, SSH can be used for practically everything - you can install software or restart particular services including the web server or the database server that run on the machine. SSH is used primarily with UNIX-like Operating Systems, but there are clients which enable you to employ the protocol if your laptop or computer is working with a different Operating System as well. The connection is established on TCP port 22 by default and the remote web server always listens for incoming connections on that port even though lots of providers change it for security reasons.