Enabling and Accessing Jailed SSH on DomainIndia.com cPanel Hosting

SSH (Secure Shell) gives you a command line on your hosting account, so you can move and unpack files in bulk, read logs, check disk usage or tunnel into your database from your own computer. On Domain India shared hosting it is a jailed shell: you work inside your own account and cannot see or change anything else on the server. This guide covers how to get it switched on, how to set up the SSH key you log in with, how to connect, and what the jail allows.

1. What a jailed shell is

A normal Linux login can wander around the whole server. A jailed (restricted) shell cannot. Our cPanel and DirectAdmin servers run CloudLinux with CageFS, which gives each account its own view of the file system: your home folder, your websites and a limited set of system files and commands. Other customers' accounts are invisible to you, and yours to them.

So it is not the same as a server of your own:

• There is no root access and no sudo. You cannot install system packages or change server settings.
• Git is available inside the jail on our cPanel servers (measured 23 September 2026). Other tools available inside the jailed shell vary, and we do not publish a fixed list. If you plan to rely on Composer, WP-CLI, Node.js, Python or anything else, ask support whether it is available on your server before you build around it.
• Everything you run counts towards your account's resource limits, just like your website does.

If you need full control of the machine, that is a VPS, not shared hosting (see section 10).

2. Which plans can have SSH

Port 22 is open on all of our Linux shared servers (measured 20 September 2026). It is closed on the Windows servers, so SSH and SFTP do not work there at all. The full list of open ports is in our port numbers guide.

3. How to ask for SSH to be enabled

SSH is switched on per account, on request. There is nothing to buy.

Never send a password or a private key in a ticket or chat. Support will not ask for either.

4. Your connection details

Open /client/services/hosting, click Manage on your hosting account and open the Access tab. The Login details card shows your username, server IP and panel URL, each with a copy button. The server hostname is the part of the panel URL between https:// and the colon. If you cannot find these, see how to find your hosting login details.

5. Set up your SSH key

SSH on our shared servers accepts key login only: password authentication is switched off (measured on our cPanel and DirectAdmin servers, 23 September 2026). Use a key on Webuzo as well. Your control panel password will not work over SSH, so set up a key before you connect. A key is also more secure: the private key stays on your computer and is never sent to the server.

6. Connect from Windows, macOS or Linux

macOS, Linux and Windows 10 and 11

Open Terminal (or Windows Terminal / PowerShell on Windows, which has the same ssh command built in) and run, replacing the username and host with yours:

ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 -p 22 [email protected]

The first time, type yes to trust the server's fingerprint. If your key has a passphrase, SSH asks for it: that is the key's passphrase, not your panel password.

PuTTY

Enter your domain or server IP as the Host Name, port 22, connection type SSH. Load your private key under Connection › SSH › Auth › Credentials, then click Open and log in with your control panel username. PuTTY uses its own .ppk key format; PuTTYgen converts a normal OpenSSH key into it.

Save the settings

A short entry in the file ~/.ssh/config saves typing:

Host myhosting
    HostName yourdomain.com
    User yourusername
    Port 22
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

Now ssh myhosting is enough. SFTP in FileZilla or WinSCP works with the same host, port 22, username and key.

7. What you can and cannot do inside the jail

• Your limits still apply. SSH sessions and anything you start from them count towards your number-of-processes limit and use CPU, memory and I/O, so a heavy job can slow your own website. See understanding hosting resource limits.
• PHP on the command line has the same restrictions as your website. On our cPanel servers about 50 PHP functions, including proc_open and popen, are disabled for the web and the command line alike. That breaks some Composer and Laravel tasks. The details are in PHP disabled functions on shared hosting.
• Databases stay closed to the internet. Port 3306 is firewalled on our shared servers, so a desktop database tool must connect through an SSH tunnel. The steps are in how to connect to the MySQL database.

8. Troubleshooting

9. Keep your SSH access secure

10. Where SSH fits on Domain India

Jailed SSH access is available on every cPanel, DirectAdmin and Webuzo shared hosting plan, on request, for site owners and developers who need a command line alongside the control panel.

Prices on the cards are live and exclude 18% GST.

When the jail is too small for the job, move up rather than fighting it:

• The App Platform runs always-on apps such as Node.js and Python without you managing a server.
• A VPS gives you full root access, your own packages and your own open ports.

Ready to use SSH? Ask support to enable it by opening a ticket or on live chat, create your SSH key and find your username and server IP in My Hosting. If you are setting up a database tunnel, follow how to connect to the MySQL database.