As all of you have heard by now, two factor authentication is becoming the standard for loging in to your email desktop ssh etc.

This manual is for all of you who use Bitvise tunnelier to login into your windows desktop at work. To avoid having to generate a code on your PC or telephone every time you login there is an alternative method by means of SSH keys.

This is a one time action and will make things much easier for you.

Please follow the steps below

Open bitvise tunnelier. And click on the client key manager:

The following window opens, and click generate new:

After that a new window will appear, do not bother about the profile field, it will be generated automatically and will show probably 1 in your case. Now choose a passphrase you can remember. See this as a kind of password, and do not make it too easy.

You can leave the comment field empty that will be generated automatically as well. Click generate:

Next step will be to export the generated key and save it on your local computer. For this choose the option export:

A new window will show up

Select the open SSH Format and choose export at the bottom. (Note: If you want to use WinSCP in a similar manner, please also Export Private Key in a similar fashion: also openSSH format).

You will then be asked to save this file on your local desktop or laptop. After that you can close the Bitvise client key management window. Click save in the left pane of bitvise as shown below, in the popup window just click OK

Mail the new exported key file which you saved on your pc or laptop as an attachment to computerworkers@strw.leidenuniv.nl and we will make sure this key will be implemented on our SSH server.   When you have received confirmation that your key has been applied, your Bitvise-tunnelier changes a little bit. The new login window has to be changed as shown below, change initial method and client key.

Change Initial method to: Publick key

Change Client key to: Profile 1

Enter your passphrase: The name you gave to your private key in the previous steps.

After these changes click Save Profile again in the left pane. From now you can login as usual but instead of asking for your userid and password, it will ask for your passphrase. After that your desktop will be opened as usual.