Free SSH Client for PocketPC and Smartphones (WM5)

by Oscar Sodani

November 26, 2006

Oscar Sodani is a founder of Help2Go and owner of Help2Go Networks, an IT consulting firm in the Washington D.C. area. Oscar holds the CISSP certification as well as industry certifications from Microsoft, Cisco and Novell.

I own a T-Mobile MDA, which is a so-called Smartphone. Like other Smartphones, It runs the Windows Mobile 5 (WM5) operating system, and can connect to the Internet at any time via T-Mobile's network. One of the first pieces of software I was eager to load onto it was a good, lightweight SSH client, so that I could remotely monitor my servers wherever I was.

I was very happy to find that PuTTY, my favorite freeware SSH client for Windows, had a PocketPC / WM5 version! It is called PocketPuTTY , and can be downloaded for free here.

The version I used was 0.1, a stable first release for the Windows Mobile 2003/5.0 operating system. I was able to download the ZIP file directly onto my phone and use the ZIP utility pre-installed in WM5 to extract the executable file. I ran the file via File Explorer - and up popped a very simple to use, very fast SSH client.

I was instantly able to connect to the Linux and Solaris servers I administer, as well as my home Linux computer. The response time was excellent via T-Mobile's network, and the keyboard on my Smartphone worked flawlessly.

If you are looking for a small, free SSH client for your PocketPC or Smartphone, I would highly recommend PocketPuTTY.

Have a question? Need help? Get free, friendly person-to-person help with your computer questions or spyware questions in our help forums!

[ Back ]
More Tutorials
More Mobile