Secure Shell, better known as SSH, is a cryptographic network protocol employed to execute commands on a remote hosting server or to exchange info between a website hosting server and a client. Given that the information exchanged by the 2 sides is protected, a 3rd party simply cannot intercept it, which makes SSH a favorite means of handling an Internet hosting account. The commands that can be executed depend on the type of hosting service. On a shared web server, for instance, the choices are limited because you will not have root access to the website hosting server, so you may only create/move/delete files, set up and unpack archives, import and export databases, and so forth. They're all actions that are executed inside the shared hosting account and do not require a higher level of access. Using a virtual or a dedicated server, you shall be able to set up server-side software or to restart the server or just a certain service (web server, database server, etc.). SSH commands are submitted through a command line, but if you do not use a UNIX-like Operating System, there are plenty of applications for other OSs, which you can employ to connect to the remote web server as well.