SSH, which is an abbreviation for Secure Shell, is a network protocol that is used to exchange encrypted data between a client and a web server, making it impossible for unauthorized parties to intercept any info. Many tech-savvy customers choose SSH because of the enhanced level of security. The connection is made and the commands are sent using a command line. The offered options depend on the type of hosting service - on a shared server, for example, files could be relocated or deleted, databases can be imported and exported, and archives could be created or unpacked. On a virtual or a dedicated server, your options are significantly more - the web server and the database server may be started/stopped/rebooted, server-side software may be set up and more. These things aren't possible on a shared server, because full root access is needed and all the other customers on that server will be affected. Even though SSH is used predominantly with UNIX-like Operating Systems, there are SSH clients for other OSs too - Windows, Mac OS, etc.