ssh passphrase permissions issues
I will try to be as thorough as possible, but keep in mind I am a designer, not a programmer... I do have linux mdadm experience and am reasonably comfortable behind the terminal, but I may need things to be spelled out for me. I am using 2 new-ish Macs with 10.5.7. Thx!

Objective:
create a ssh tunnel so my Macbook Pro at my office can connect to my Mac Pro at home. I will be using JollysFastVNC to access programs and have complete access to my workstation. All I need the ssh for is to connect one laptop to one desktop with a static IP. I just need help configuring the ssh securely.

So far I have used this potentially amazing tutorial -- however I have gotten to step 3 on page 2 and have produced different results depending on how I transfer the id_rsa private key to the .ssh folder on my laptop. Basically I'm stuck here. It appears to be a permissions problem in the id_rsa file but I can't seem to affect it. Specifically I can login to the Mac Pro locally, but questionably insecurely, and I cannot login with an external ip address -- reguardless of the permissions setting on the id_rsa file. Therefore I'm convinced I've done messed up somewhere else too...




Result from id_rsa file #1:
When I copy the id_rsa file to the macbook via thumb drive (like the tut says) I get these results:
• id_rsa file shows up in finder as a UNIX executable file with open permissions... r/rw for user (Me), staff, everyone
• when I type ssh username@local-ip-address into the terminal I get an "@@@ WARNING: UNPROTECTED PRIVATE KEY @@@" message. (please view image (that's now a link))
• Then I type my password to the MP and it logs in. (Doesn't ask for the passphrase) This really confuses me.






Result from id_rsa file #2:
When I copy the id_rsa file to the macbook via local network (directly to the mackbook's user's shared public folder) I get these results:
• id_rsa file shows up in finder as a plain text file with r/rw access to nobody and no access to everyone.
• when I type ssh username@local-ip-address into the terminal:
_ • first the terminal outputs the warning.txt from the the MP, then I get "password" prompt
_ • If type my passphrase or if I type anything into the password prompt, the same prompt pops up again as if the passphrase is typed incorrectly. then after 3 attempts it goes to the terminal and asks for the password for the MP. Strangely, when I hit cancel or type in nothing and click "ok", the password prompt doesn't reappear and it again goes straight back to the terminal and asks for the password to the Mac Pro.
_ • When I type in my password to the MP in the Terminal, I am logged in to the MP just like the other id_rsa file.





Likewise when I type ssh -p 8822 username@external-ip-address I get the same results for each of the id_rsa versions ("@@@ WARNING: UNPROTECTED PRIVATE KEY @@@" message or that password prompt that doesn't seem to do anything)
except this time I am not asked for the MP password in the terminal, instead I just get a "Permission denied (publickey)" error. Luckily it appears I'm not accessing the MP at all since the ***Warning*** message dosen't appear.



Any help would be appreciated! Thx!



---------- Post updated at 02:31 PM ---------- Previous update was at 10:45 AM ----------

SSH in Mac OS X

Says:
"Be sure to save it as a file. DO NOT copy and paste the keys! Copy/paste will add newlines, which will make the keys unusable."

So perhaps my problem is that I need to somehow get the key to the client computer without copy/paste.

Quite a conundrum for someone favorite shortcuts are cmd-C cmd-V...

---------- Post updated at 03:14 PM ---------- Previous update was at 02:31 PM ----------

Setup the SSH server to use keys for authentication
Copying via terminal fixed my permissions issue. Still working on the remote login however. Still get "Permission denied (publickey)" after a successful passphrase login.