Installing an SSH server on the windows server will help you manage your server by remotely accessing the server terminal. It helps you control the server when you don’t have GUI access. All you need is an SSH client (such as puTTY), which helps you develop connection to the server in an encrypted manner.

There are many SSH server options available for windows 2008, some of them are as follows:

• SSH.com – Free non-commercial SSH Server
• SSH.com – SSH Tectia Client and Server (commercial)
• OpenSSH
• Van Dyke – vShell 3.0 Server (commercial)
• Free SSHd (this is what we are gonna use in this tutorial)
• WinSSHd (commercial)
• Kpym Telnet/SSH Server
• copSSH for Windows (a modified build of OpenSSH)
• Sysax Multi-Server (SSH Server) for Windows

We are gonna use Free SSHd in this tutorial, its easiest to install and works perfectly. Visit there official site and download the .exe file from the Downloads page. After download is over, run the exe file..

Keep pressing next and install it on your server, at the last step you will be asked about creating private keys, press Yes.

Click yes to run FreeSSHd as a system service.

FreeSSHd will now be running on your server, the next job is to add an user. To do so, click on FreeSSHd icon at bottom right icon tray. That shall open settings, click on “users” tab and click “add” to add an new user.

Add details as showed in the image above. There are many other options you can make use of, but i’m pretty sure you can do that well by own

That being done, It is necessary to add an exception to the windows firewall to allow connections from TCP port 22. Thus, click on “windows firewall and advanced security” option from “Administrative tools” in start menu.

Click on “Inbound Rules” on the left, and after that click on “New Rule” from the right part of window.

That shall give you a new window. Click on “port” and press Next.

Select TCP and write “22″ in Specific local ports option. That shall allow connections from port 22.

Keep on pressing Next until Finish.
That’s it. you have set up an SSH server. Now you can use any SSH client (for example, puTTY) and access the server terminal via SSH (tcp port 22).