SSH, which is an abbreviation for Secure Shell, is a network protocol employed to transfer protected information between a client and a hosting server, which makes it impossible for unauthorized parties to intercept any information. Many tech-savvy customers prefer SSH because of the improved security level. The connection is created and the commands are sent through a command line. The accessible options depend on the type of hosting service - on a shared server, for instance, files can be transferred or deleted, databases may be imported and exported, and archives may be created or unpacked. On a virtual or a dedicated server, your choices are considerably more - the web server and the database server can be started/stopped/rebooted, server-side software may be installed and a lot more. These things are not possible on a shared server, because full root access is needed and all the other customers on that server will be affected. Though SSH is used primarily with UNIX-like Operating Systems, there are SSH clients for other OSs as well - Windows, Mac OS, and so on.