Secure Shell, better known as SSH, is a cryptographic network protocol used to execute commands on a remote web server or to exchange data between a website hosting server and a client. Since the information exchanged by the two sides is encrypted, a third party can't intercept it, which makes SSH a favorite means of handling a hosting account. The commands that could be executed are determined by the type of hosting service. On a shared hosting server, in particular, the alternatives are limited since you simply won't have root access to the server, so you may simply create/move/delete files, create and unpack archives, export and import databases, etc. They are all actions which are carried out within the shared hosting account and don't need a higher level of access. With a virtual or a dedicated server, you will have the ability to install server-side software or to restart the hosting server or just a particular service (web server, database server, etc.). SSH commands are submitted through a command line, but if you don't use a UNIX-like OS, there are a number of applications for other OSs, that you can employ to connect to the remote web server as well.