SSH, or Secure Shell, is a network protocol that's used to connect to a web server and conduct various tasks using a command line. The protocol is used by many knowledgeable users, because the data transmitted over it is encrypted, so it can't be intercepted on the way by a third party. SSH access may be employed for a lot of things with regards to the type of Internet hosting account. With a shared hosting account, in particular, SSH is one of several ways to import/export a database or to upload a file in case the website hosting server permits it. In case you have a virtual or a dedicated server, SSH can be used for practically everything - you could install software or restart particular services such as the web server or the database server that run on the machine. SSH is employed primarily with UNIX-like Systems, but there are clients that allow you to employ the protocol if your computer is running a different OS too. The connection is created on TCP port 22 by default and the remote hosting server always listens for incoming connections on that port though lots of service providers change it for security reasons.