Jargon: SSH, again, with a Step-by-Step HowTo

At Blogging While Brown, it was mentioned in one of the panels that having your own domain name was crucial to establishing your brand. The biggest hurdle for most people, however, is that having a sole domain name usually means looking at a non-free host for your website. While that isn’t completely true, as Wordpress.com and Blogger.com provide tools for your domain name to point to their servers, venturing out on your own is worth it.

Just….be careful.

If you signup for any shared hosting plan, you’re essentially going out and buying a used Kia from ebaymotors without a test-drive. Forget the fact that its a Kia, non-tested, non-reviewed hosts are a nightmare if your site gains popularity.

While I won’t rip anyone who has a shared host, because I know $50 / year is within people’s budgets, consider opting for a secure shell (SSH) upgrade. Some shared hosts offer it, and trust me, it will make your site management a TON easier. If we stick to the Wordpress platform, learning even the most basic commands can allow you to easily install plugins, backup your database, upgrade your Wordpress version, change the permissions of certain folders, and edit files…all from the same screen. If your current hosting provider doesn’t offer the option, consider migrating to a virtual private server (VPS). I recommend Spry.

I wrote about this topic briefly in a previous post, but I wanted to give you some specific tasks to reiterate the point.

If you’re on a Mac, Terminal is built-in. If you’re on a Windows machine, check Putty.

Note: Commands to actually type into the terminal window are preceeded by ‘>’.

Logging In

> ssh <username>@<yoursite.com>

If you get a question asking you to authenticate, answer ‘yes’, otherwise, type your password at the next prompt. You should then be greeted by a message stating the last time you logged in an a prompt with your <username>@<yoursite.com>. The text within the following ‘[ ]‘ is the directory you are in.

Check Your Current Path

> pwd

Most shared hosts will return ‘/home/’.

View the List of Files

> ls -la

A detailed list of files, their permissions, their filesize, their owner, and their last edited date appear. Most shared hosts have a ‘www’ directory virtually pointed to a ‘public_html’ directory.

Install a Plugin in Wordpress

> cd www/wp-content/plugins

This changes your directory to the plugins directory, assuming the typical installation. If you forget a folder name, press the Tab key on your keyboard and it will auto-fill the folder name if it exists. If you press the Tab key twice, it will list the files to choose from.

> wget <url_of_plugin>.zip

This will download the zip file of the plugin to the ‘plugins’ directory. Easiest way is to navigate to http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins, search for your plugin, right-click the ‘Download’ link, copy the link location, and paste the link after your ‘wget’.

> unzip <plugin_filename>.zip

Unzip the plugin in the ‘plugins’ folder. A folder with the name of the plugin with it’s contents is created.

> rm <plugin_filename>.zip

Remove the .zip file of the plugin in the ‘plugins’ directory. Be sure to include the ‘.zip’ extension so you remove the zip file and not the folder.

Now just navigate to your plugins menu in the Wordpress admin menu and activate! Pretty simple, eh? If you ever need help, some blog consulting, or are looking to purchase some hosting from a Black business, contact me over at Bright Plum.

Bonus Tip: How to upgrade your version of Wordpress in 3 steps via SSH (including backing up your database)