Secure Shell, also known as SSH, is a cryptographic network protocol employed to execute commands on a remote hosting server or to exchange data between a hosting server and a client. Since the info exchanged by the 2 sides is encoded, a third party won't be able to intercept it, which makes SSH a preferred means of managing an Internet hosting account. The commands which may be executed are determined by the type of hosting service. On a shared hosting server, for instance, the alternatives are limited because you'll not have root access to the server, so you could simply create/move/delete files, create and unpack archives, export and import databases, etc. They are all actions that are performed in the shared hosting account and do not require a higher level of access. By using a virtual or a dedicated server, you will have the option to install server-side software or to restart the hosting server or only a particular service (web server, database server, etc.). SSH commands are submitted with a command line, but if you don't employ a UNIX-like OS, there are tons of apps for other OSs, which you can use to connect to the remote hosting server as well.
