what does this mean ?

[C M Reinehr]

Vu,

On Monday 08 October 2007 15:38, vu pham wrote:
> I was on my home PC "gh" making connection to the server "o" in the
> office and got the error and the next immediate trying has it worked.
>
> Never has I got this before.
>
>
> [vu at gh ~]$ ssh o
> ssh_exchange_identification: read: Connection reset by peer
> [vu at gh ~]$ ssh o
> The authenticity of host 'o (192.168.249.214)' can't be established.
> RSA key fingerprint is 99:a7:af:cc:8a:1b:86:ec:77:20:a6:91:f0:6f:30:73.
> Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)?
>
> Vu

Vu,

The first message would seem to indicate that either the ssh server was not 
running or that your PC was not authorized to make a connection.

The second message indicates just what it says, that your ssh client does not 
recognize the RSA fingerprint of the ssh server at 'o'. This can be caused if 
you have changed the IP number of system 'o' or by reinstalling (and 
generating a new fingerprint) the ssh server software. It also can mean that 
you are subject to a "man in the middle" or spoofing attack, i.e., you're not 
really connecting to the correct server. The RSA fingerprint info is stored 
in ~/.ssh/known_hosts (at least, it is on my Debian system) on your PC 'gh'.
You can learn more by increasing the debug level of your ssh client in 
ssh_config (it defaults to LogLevel=INFO).

Cheers!

cmr

-- 
Debian 'Etch' - Registered Linux User #241964
--------
"More laws, less justice." -- Marcus Tullius Ciceroca, 42 BC