Introduction

Sun Microsystems' Shared Shell is a free piece of software that solves a number of problems for a system administrator. What it allows you to do is log into a SSH server as you would from any terminal, and then share the session with multiple users. It brings collaboration to SSH by adding a whiteboard feature and a chat window to the terminal. Probably its biggest attraction is that it allows multiple users connect to the same server without configuring firewalls, or adding accounts for each users. Shared Shell is written in Java, so it will run on almost any graphical platform. It does require that you have a freely available Sun Online Account or a Sun Microsystems Employee account. Shared Shell is available at Sun Microsystems - Shared Shell.

Shared Shell's main window with an active terminal and two users.

Login

To create a new session you need to put in your SSH or Telnet server's address, username, and password. In addition you need to put in your Sun Online Account information.

To login to an existing Shared Shell session you will first need an invitation key from the session. This must by obtained outside of shared shell, i.e. IM, phone, email. You will also need to put in you Sun Online Account information before you connect to the session.

The following window will show you the invite code for your session. A user's Sun Online account name will show up in this window when he or she connects allowing you to decide to allow then or deny access to the session.

Features

Shared Shell includes the ability for users to use a white board functionality on top of the active terminal.

As with any white board you can erase any marks that are made.

A great feature included in Shared Shell is that is colorizes each user's text. Not only does it colorize the text in the chat window but also in the terminal window, and cursors.

Permissions

Shared Shell allows you to give an invited user one of three permissions:

• Full Access

  Allows the user to type in the terminal and press enter to execute commands.

• No-Exec Access

  Allows the user to type in the terminal, but may not execute commands.

• View Only Access

  Allows the user only to view the terminal. The user cannot type commands nor execute them.

A full access user must press enter for the no-exec access user. This is useful if you want someone to show you the command but do not trust them enough to let them execute the command.

File Transfer

Shared Shell allows users to send files and receive files from other users. Users can even request a file from another user.

Sun Microsystems' Shared Shell is available freely for download at Sun Microsystems - Shared Shell.