Syntax of the ssh.ini file ========================== There are some bugs in SSH, such that editing SSH.INI is sometimes more effective than is setting values in the program's runtime screens. In "identities", the full pathname and name of the identity file are not shown. However, in the .INI file, you can set IdentityFile to any pathspec you wish. Example: IdentityFile=C:\Program files\ssh\identity If you want to set the compression level to "none", you can do so in SSH.INI by setting "compression" to "FALSE", in which case "Compression level" will be ignored. (The default value is 6.) So, if you want to enable compression, you must set "Compression" to "TRUE" and "Compression level" to 1-9. Although you can set "local forwards" and "remote forwards" inside the SSH program, to specify forwarding of additional ports, sometimes SSH then crashes, or crashes after connecting. It is better to specify these values, LocalForward or RemoteForward, in the INI file. Example: LocalForward=4000 blah.where.com:110,5000 blah.where.com:25,6000 blah.where.com:21 This means: forward port 110 from blah.where.com to localhost port 4000 forward port 25 from blah.where.com to localhost port 5000 forward port 21 from blah.where.com to localhost port 6000 So, if I connect to localhost port 4000, I communicate with the POP3 server on blah.where.com, over an encrypted channel. Of course, for FTP, you must set your ftp client to passive mode (and the server on blah.where.com must support this), because FTP normally runs data over port 20 and interactive commands over port 21. In passive transfer mode, FTP runs over port 21.