Re: ssh issue that I don't understand

On 7/6/26 00:19, Chris Green wrote:
> This isn't a problem as such but I don't understand why it's happening
> and I'd like to understand.
>
> I have a VPS called isbd.biz and I access it using ssh.  My user
> account on both my local machine (desktop and laptop) is 'chris' and
> my user account on isbd.biz is also 'chris'.
>
> I have account 'chris' on isbd.biz set up to allow login only using
> public key authentication.
>
> The ip address of isbd.biz is 213.171.194.64.
>
> If I log in with 'ssh 213.171.194.64' I, correctly, get prompted for
> my local system's public key passphrase and I can log in successfully.
>
> However if I try 'ssh isbd.biz' I get prompted for"[email protected]'s password" which doesn't exist and I can't log in.
>
> 'host isbd.biz' returns the correct IP address for isbd.biz so why
> does ssh not work using the name rather than the IP address?
>
Check your ssh client config file (should be at /home/chris/.ssh/config)
You probably didn't setup it for the host isbd.biz, or didn't put the 
IdentityFile directive correctly.
The host entry in your case should look like this:

Host isbd.biz
    HostName isbd.biz
    Port 22
    User chris
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/my-ssh-key-for-isbd-biz.key


See "man ssh_config" if you want to know more about additional 
directives and syntax.

-- 

  With kindest regards, Alexander.

  Debian - The universal operating system
  https://www.debian.org