openssh installation success

[Faheem Mitha]

Dear people,

Just thought I would say a quick thank-you. I managed to compile and
install the openssh rpms for ssh on my system from the source rpm
which was provided (at least the ssh and the ssh-clients rpms, which I
think is all I need, since I do not want to ssh in from outside). ssh
and scp seem to be working properly (I ran them with -v flag). Also,
they run noticeably faster than the old versions I has installed (not
openssh but ssh, wherever that came from).

People on this list have been very helpful considering that this is
not really what this list is for.

I will go away now, but before I do, Let me just ask a couple of dumb
questions. 

1) I asked a long time ago on the ssh newsgroup whether there was any
   way to interactively turn on and off encryption while a ssh session
   is going on. The reason was that it might speed things up, and
   often in a ssh session one only cares about encrypting the
   password. The answer was apparently no, and I am wondering whether
   this is still true, and if so, why. Ie. the feature was not added
   because it was considered unnecessary, undesirable, or just
   impossible to implement within  the current framework?

2) What is a good value of compression to use for ssh logins to remote
   sites, if using a modem? 

Oh yes, and please recommend a good place on the web to learn about
ssh. Your manual page assumes some expertise.

                         Best regards, Faheem Mitha.