Installing the ssh client on Windows 2000

The ssh client can be obtained from http://www.ssh.com/support/downloads/secureshellwks/

The binary downloads for the site are at http://ftp.ssh.com/pub/ssh/ and you just need the single file called SSHSecureShellClient-3.2.9.exe (note the version number will likely change).

Run the installer. When you reach the "Select Components" window, check all options EXCEPT "Add Command Line Tools to Path." You will want the tools to be added to the path. However, this option only adds it to the path for the current user (there are two PATH environment variables in Windows, one for the current user and another for all users).

To add the ssh client to the PATH environment for ALL users:
1) Right click on "My Computer"
2) Select "Properties"
3) Click on the "advanced" tab
4) Click on the "Environment Variables" button
5) Under "System Variables", select the "Path" variable and click "Edit"
6) Add the ssh client to the path by appending a semicolon and the location of the program. Append ";C:\Program Files\SSH Communications Security\SSH Secure Shell" to the path, assuming that this is where the ssh client was installed.

The new path will not take effect until you log out and log back in. Then you should be able to run ssh from the command line. Note that the command line program is called "ssh2" instead of the more popularly known "ssh". If you want to change it to ssh, go to C:\Program Files\SSH Communications Security\SSH Secure Shell or wherever it's installed and rename the ssh2 program to ssh or make a second copy of the ssh2 program called ssh.