Eh, here is my problem: I am working in a webdevelopment agency (thats a problem but not the real problem, read on). Most of the time I choose the live server myself when creating a new website project. But now the customer already has a "server" (10 GB on a cheapo host!) and the "admin" refuses to give me ssh access to it. But I need to access the server via shell because many files will be transported (need to be able to upload and extract a tar) and I need to insert or create mysql dumps via command line. He argues FTP and phpmyadmin should be enough... as far as I know the webspace was just ordered to host the website, so no security critical apps are running there.

How can I either convince the admin to give me the ssh login or tell management that we need our own server? Anyone with similiar experiences?

This is really annoying as this is a very small project that should be done fast and now one has to fight in order to just get the work done...