So, as some of you probably know ssh supports this neat thing called public key authentication that lets you log into servers (like xepher.net) without having to type your password every time. This provides handy four-keystroke ("!ss enter", assuming you haven't been sshing anywhere else lately) login. It also prevents people from stealing your password with a key logger or by watching you type it.
It
ALSO happens a good way to lock yourself out! What you do is create a file called .ssh/authorized_keys (so far, so good), and open it in nano. Then, copy your public key (from your home machine) into that file. Obviously the fastest way to do that is copy and paste! Open up a terminal on your Mac/*nix machine (Windows users are on your own, sorry), type "cat .ssh/id_dsa.pub", command-C, tab over to the window where you've got the authorized_keys file on xepher.net open, command-V, ctrl-X, save the file, and logout. That's it, you're done, and you ain't getting back in until xepher fixes your account for you! See, ssh expects expects one key in authorized_keys to be on one line, and the cut-and-paste job introduces a line break. Ssh fails miserably trying to read your key, freaks out, and closes the connection. As an added bonus, sftp uses ssh in the background, so if you break ssh, you can't even get in and delete the offending file via sftp!
If you've followed these instructions, congratulations, you're now in the same boat I am: unable to do anything (except write tongue-in-cheek tech support posts in the forum) until xepher logs into AIM and/or checks his mail.
grumble
