Everything I find relating to this is the "ssh-exchange-identification:" error. This doesn't happen for me. I get two lines: Connection to localhost closed by remote host. Connection to localhost closed. ssh -v localhost spits out: OpenSSH_5.8p1, OpenSSL 0.9.8r 8 Feb 2011 debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh_config debug1: Connecting to localhost [::1] port 22. debug1: Connection established. debug1: identity file /home/tim/.ssh/id_rsa type -1 debug1: identity file /home/tim/.ssh/id_rsa-cert type -1 debug1: identity file /home/tim/.ssh/id_dsa type -1 debug1: identity file /home/tim/.ssh/id_dsa-cert type -1 debug1: identity file /home/tim/.ssh/id_ecdsa type -1 debug1: identity file /home/tim/.ssh/id_ecdsa-cert type -1 debug1: Remote protocol version 2.0, remote software version OpenSSH_5.8 debug1: match: OpenSSH_5.8 pat OpenSSH* debug1: Enabling compatibility mode for protocol 2.0 debug1: Local version string SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_5.8 debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT sent debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT received debug1: kex: server->client aes128-ctr hmac-md5 none debug1: kex: client->server aes128-ctr hmac-md5 none debug1: sending SSH2_MSG_KEX_ECDH_INIT debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_ECDH_REPLY debug1: Server host key: ECDSA 64:e3:27:90:ef:48:93:21:38:ea:9b:0e:0b:07:b0:2a debug1: Host 'localhost' is known and matches the ECDSA host key. debug1: Found key in /home/tim/.ssh/known_hosts:1 debug1: ssh_ecdsa_verify: signature correct debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS sent debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS received debug1: Roaming not allowed by server debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_REQUEST sent debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_ACCEPT received debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,password,keyboard-interactive debug1: Next authentication method: publickey debug1: Trying private key: /home/tim/.ssh/id_rsa debug1: Trying private key: /home/tim/.ssh/id_dsa debug1: Trying private key: /home/tim/.ssh/id_ecdsa debug1: Next authentication method: keyboard-interactive debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,password,keyboard-interactive debug1: Next authentication method: password tim@localhost's password: debug1: Authentication succeeded (password). Authenticated to localhost ([::1]:22). debug1: channel 0: new [client-session] debug1: Requesting [email protected] debug1: Entering interactive session. debug1: channel 0: free: client-session, nchannels 1 Connection to localhost closed by remote host. Connection to localhost closed. Transferred: sent 2008, received 1376 bytes, in 0.0 seconds Bytes per second: sent 64774.0, received 44387.0 debug1: Exit status -1 I'm really at wit's end here because I couldn't get Windows' remote shell to even work. I'm so sick of using VNC just to get to a shell. Plus Windows' shell sucks because there is nothing like screen. Thanks