I am trying to give tech support to someone, but am new to Linode.

Problem 1: I have valid user credentials and can ssh into lish via Terminal command line. But I can't connect via FileZilla.
Problem 2: When I ssh into the account, I always get stuck at the OpenSUSE "secure login:" prompt. I do not know what this is asking for.

Which user are you using to SSH into your server?

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Best,
Lev
https://levlaz.org

Thanks. I'm not such a newbie anymore. There were two problems:

1) the creator of the site had changed the port from the usual ssh/sftp port to something completely different, for security reasons, and FileZilla won't accept that at all!
2) I was trying to log in with my Linode LISH alias, which of course isn't meant for root-site administration. I got the existing pw and port, logged in as root, and everything has been straightforward since.

For ssh I use Mac Terminal or PuTTY (Windows).

While I couldn't get FileZilla to use port 2xxxx, I have had no trouble doing sftp with other file-transfer programs (Fetch, CyberDuck, and some other one).

I am glad that you were able to get this to work!

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Best,
Lev
https://levlaz.org

Just to the right of HOST (where you enter the hostname or IP address, there's a field called PORT.

Below that is the PROTOCOL drop down (where you select SFTP - SSH File Transfer Protocol).

It's worked that way for many many versions with no problems on using a non-standard SSH Port.

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Either provide enough details for people to help, or sit back and listen to the crickets chirp.
Security thru obscurity is a myth - and really really annoying.