When connecting to a remote system, an authentication mechanism must be provided for your session. This could include passwords or tokens as means to validate who should connect. Selecting one that best meets your situation and needs will be key.
SecureCRT offers multiple authentication mechanisms to assist in authenticating in different ways and through different mechanisms. For example, using two-step code authentication (which most modern firewalls and VPN servers support), ensures that whoever logs on actually is you; alternatively you can specify a text file as an audit trail to show who you were when connecting to SecureCRT.
Using a firewall/VPN server with SSH SOCKS support, if you wish to restrict SecureCRT to use its proxy provided by it. This can help reduce how much information travels over the network; particularly important when connecting via an encrypted channel.
Notably, for this method to work effectively, both your firewall/VPN must support SOCKS version 5 as well as having an active and working connection to the target host(s), or else SecureCRT may disconnect after an idle timeout set either by SecureCRT itself or the remote system/firewall/router/VPN.
Some users find it helpful to create a shortcut of SecureCRT in their Windows profile startup folder and configure its run property so it launches in a minimized state – this enables a Master session to quickly connect and be ready for use.
One of the more frequent pitfalls encountered by novice or even veteran SecureCRT scripters is sending commands before the remote system is ready to receive them, which may cause it to timeout or close its window even though new data keeps arriving.
You can avoid this problem by activating the ‘User Arrange Tree’ setting. This enables you to organize the hundreds of named sessions stored in SecureCRT into an easily manageable structure based on your own preferences, rather than having the software do it alphabetically for you. This makes managing sessions much simpler while eliminating the risk of sending commands intended for another user that could pose security threats.
Many users may wish to move the configuration of one SecureCRT machine installed on one machine to another computer using the same version. To accomplish this task, on both computers use the Global Options dialog under General and note where your Configuration folder location is. Once on their destination computer install SecureCRT then transfer its contents into their configuration directory as appropriate.