= I'm getting a scary message when I try to login to my account using secure shell or secure FTP =

When you try to [wiki:secure_shell secure shell] (ssh) or [wiki:sftp secure FTP] to our servers, you may get a message along the lines of:

{{{
 @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
@    WARNING: REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED!     @
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
IT IS POSSIBLE THAT SOMEONE IS DOING SOMETHING NASTY!
Someone could be eavesdropping on you right now (man-in-the-middle attack)!
It is also possible that the RSA host key has just been changed.
}}}

The reason you may be getting this message is because May First/People Link has changed the "host keys" for most of our servers due to a [http://wiki.debian.org/SSLkeys security problem] discovered in the program used to generate the keys. 

To find out the correct, current "fingerprint" of our servers, please see our [wiki:fingerprints fingerprints] page.

To make the error message go away:

== Using linux ==

You will need to edit your ~/.ssh/known_hosts file. The error message should specify the line number of the "offending" key. Simply delete that line in the file and try again.

== Using Windows ==

You should see the new fingerprint. [wiki:fingerprints Confirm that it is correct] and then select the option to save this key permanently.
The "host keys" are random bits of text that are unique to every server. The randomness of the keys allows us to have a secure, encrypted connection between you and the server.