Mobile access to your server is not only cool, it comes in handy in a lot of situations. With SSH access from your mobile phone, you can check your emails, logs, box status, irssi, torrents, execute updates, reboot and lots of other things, all on the go. In this short tutorial I will explain how to access and administer a Ubuntu (and any Debian based) server with a not so recent Mobile phone. For this to work, you will need a java supporting mobile device with GPRS enabled (Midp). You will have to install a .jar file of MidpSSH on the device (which you will have to download to your mobile) and install additional ncurses terminal definitions on the server.

1. Download and install MidpSSH

Depending on you download limit for your mobile internet account, you can choose a different approach to download the jar file. The easiest is to download it through wap, alternatively you can download it to your pc and upload it to your mobile using Bluetooth or usb.

**approach 1- Using wap:**

Take your java and GPRS enabled mobile and browse to http://xk72.com/wap

Select the latest Stable release (v1.6.0) and select your preferred version on the next page for the download and installation to start. Best place to install it is in the applications directory.

**approach 2 - download to your pc**

download full_build_v1.6.0_stable

and upload it to you mobile and install it in you application directory.

2. Configure MidpSSH - Create a session

Once the installation is finished, go to the applications directory on the mobile. Select Sessions, select more to create a new session. Fill in the required fields and select create.

3. Install additional ncurses definitions on the server

At this point you can already connect and do basic operations. But a lot of terminal applications use ncursus for the interface. If you want to use such an app, you will get the following error:

error unkown terminal type vt320

This is why an additional ncurses package is needed:

sudo apt-get install ncurses-term

In the Settings menu you can also select the screen to be displayed in landscape

To make it easy using MidpSSH, the developper also include the possibility to create macros or to use keyboard keys like crtl, alt, esc etc. This is among others what makes this a killer app in all its simplicity.
Applications I found useable are top (htop), mutt, mc, , irssi, rtorrent, vi and nano. Although it's a little ridicules to use a text editor with a mobile.