Zugg Software :: View topic

Newbie Joined: 26 Nov 2008 Posts: 2

Hiya, Im ok with computers so no need to go too basic but I just wondered if anyone could tell me what exactly 10 extra dollars for SSH gets me? As I have no idea what SSH is/does and how it will affect me playing on MUD's. Ty for the help in advance.

Lycan

Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 4:52 pm

It stands for "Secure SHell". It is basically an encrypted telnet session. The problem with telnet is that all text that you type is sent across the network to the remote server in clear text form. So, for example, when you type a username and password to log into a remote computer, someone can theoretically capture raw network packets and see your data.

Obviously this is bad if you are logging into a remote computer to perform any sort of root-level system administration. So SSH was invented. SSH encrypts both directions of telnet traffic. It's sort of the telnet equivalent of using HTTPS instead of HTTP for web traffic.

How does this apply to MUDs? Mostly it doesn't. I don't know of any MUDs that require or even support SSH connections. But many people use CMUD for more than just MUD playing. Since CMUD is basically a scriptable Telnet client, many people use it for other Telnet applications, such as remote system admin. For example, I regularly use CMUD to log into my remote zuggsoft.com server to perform root-level linux admin. And for this I use CMUDPro so that I can get a secure SSH connection.

The main feature in CMUDPro that helps for actual MUD playing isn't the SSH support, but is the access to COM-based scripting of the mapper (and later the new database module). You get all of the COM-based mapper scripting that you would normally only get if you had zMapper installed.

Newbie Joined: 26 Nov 2008 Posts: 2

Sorry to sound stupid but erm what is COM-based scripting hehe, ty for the previous help though

Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 6:58 pm

COM stands for Component Object Model, and it's a way for Windows applications to communicate with each other. For example, your email client might have a COM interface that lets other programs access your emails, write new ones, and so on. zMapper is a separate product that allows you to do lots more things with your maps than vanilla CMUD (and zMUD), but it makes these extra things available to CMUD through COM. Having CMUDPro means you can use these extended features without having zMapper installed.

Newbie Joined: 31 Jul 2008 Posts: 9

I use SSH in CMUDPro for another odd reason.

I run a very basic client on a server that is incredibly close, geography, to the mud that I play. This way I get very low latency for some of my triggers. As it also encrypts everything I can safely talk about whatever I want while at work to others on my mud.

Wizard Joined: 14 Oct 2000 Posts: 1368