Re: ssh issue that I don't understand
At Sun, 5 Jul 2026 20:19:12 +0100 Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> 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 "chris@isbd.biz'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?
>
This probably relates to the contents of ~/.ssh/known_hosts. 213.171.194.64
is in ~/.ssh/known_hosts, but isbd.biz is not.
--
Robert Heller -- Cell: 413-658-7953 GV: 978-633-5364
Deepwoods Software -- Custom Software Services
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