# Dreamhost - how to login to your unix account?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dreamhost-how-to-login-to-your-unix-account/99270>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [July 21, 2006, 12:36pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dreamhost-how-to-login-to-your-unix-account/99270 "2006-07-21T12:36:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/71c47a/32.png) [@greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/greg)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 12:36pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dreamhost-how-to-login-to-your-unix-account/99270/1 "2006-07-21T12:36:27Z")

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[apologies but dreamhost forums are down & I’m keen to get a rails up on  
my dreamhost account but the following isn’t clear to me - I’m just  
hoping one of the rails dreamhost users can set me straight]

I’m having difficulty in PUTTY to login to my unix account. I’ve  
tried by using Putty SSH to access “@\<the\_dns\_i\_bought\>” but  
then  
when I enter the password:

a) if I use my initial account username/password this doesn’t seem to  
work (password incorrect message)  
b) if I use the password dreamhost generated for mail/ftp I get a “use  
can  
only use this account for FTP access” type error message.

Q1 - What is the exact syntax for the URL I should be using in PUTTY  
to login to my unix account for my new dreamhost hosting I’ve bought?

Q2 - What username/password should I be using for this? (i.e. in the  
dreamhost web panel I can only seem to see the username/password  
settings for  
thing like FTP and mail, but what about the basic unix account)

Thanks

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/71c47a/32.png) [@greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/greg)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 12:55pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dreamhost-how-to-login-to-your-unix-account/99270/2 "2006-07-21T12:55:50Z")

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Hi Greg,

> b) if I use the password dreamhost generated for mail/ftp I get a “use  
> can  
> only use this account for FTP access” type error message.

You’re on track here - this is the username and password you need for  
SSH. However you’ll need to enable SSH for the account. You can do that  
in the control panel under Users -\> Manage Users. Click “Edit” for the  
relevant user, check the “Enable ssh/telnet?” box and save changes.

Hope that helps.

Simon

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/71c47a/32.png) [@greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/greg)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 1:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dreamhost-how-to-login-to-your-unix-account/99270/3 "2006-07-21T13:04:15Z")

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Excellent - got it - thanks Simon

Simon R. wrote:

> Hi Greg,
> 
> > b) if I use the password dreamhost generated for mail/ftp I get a “use  
> > can  
> > only use this account for FTP access” type error message.
> 
> You’re on track here - this is the username and password you need for  
> SSH. However you’ll need to enable SSH for the account. You can do that  
> in the control panel under Users -\> Manage Users. Click “Edit” for the  
> relevant user, check the “Enable ssh/telnet?” box and save changes.
> 
> Hope that helps.
> 
> Simon