How to Set Up SSH Keys for Your First Server

Why keys instead of passwords

Passwords are guessable, reusable, and every bot on the internet is trying them. An SSH key is a long cryptographic pair: a private key that never leaves your machine and a public key you hand to servers. A server that only accepts keys has no password to brute-force at all.

Tiny-Puter only accepts key-based SSH — passwords are never used for container access. You generate a key once, save the public half on the dashboard, and every container you create is reachable with it.

Creating your key

On Linux or macOS, open a terminal and run: ssh-keygen -t ed25519. Press Enter to accept the default location, and set a passphrase if you want the key protected on disk. On Windows, the same command works in PowerShell or Windows Terminal.

Your public key is now at ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub — that's the file you copy into the dashboard's key field. It starts with ssh-ed25519 and ends with your username and machine name.

• Generate once: ssh-keygen -t ed25519
• Copy the .pub file — never share your private key
• Paste it into the dashboard once; every container accepts it
• Connect with: ssh -p 2222 [email protected]

Connecting

Once your key is saved and a container is running, connect from anywhere with ssh -p 2222 [email protected]. Your key authenticates you and you land in your container as root. No password prompt, no public port on your container, nothing to guess.