yes and do you know about proxycommand ? let you set up hops when you don't have direct access to a server. e.g. if you don't have direct access to serverB bu

yes and do you know about proxycommand ? let you set up hops when you don't have direct access to a server. e.g. if you don't have direct access to serverB but have direct access to a serverA that has direct access to serverB put this in your ~/.ssh/config file host serverA hostname serverA.domainname.com host serverB hostname serverB.domainname.com ProxyCommand ssh serverA "nc %h %p" then typing ssh serverB will log you on serverB