SSH, or Secure Shell, is a network protocol which is used to connect to a server and execute various tasks using a command line. The protocol is used by many skilled users, since the data transmitted over it is encrypted, so it may not be intercepted on the way by a 3rd party. SSH access may be employed for a number of things depending on the type of website hosting account. With a shared hosting account, in particular, SSH is one of the ways to import/export a database or to upload a file if the server allows it. If you have a virtual or a dedicated server, SSH can be used for virtually everything - you can install software or restart particular services such as the web server or the database server which run on the machine. SSH is used mostly with UNIX-like Platforms, but there are clients which permit you to use the protocol if your personal computer is using a different OS as well. The connection is created on TCP port 22 by default and the remote web server always listens for incoming connections on that port though a number of service providers change it for security reasons.