Use cases — SSH, SFTP, RDP & VNC for macOS

Manage your home server from your Mac

One app for everything in your home lab — SSH, SFTP, VNC, and secure tunnels for Plex, Home Assistant, Nextcloud, and more.

A home server today is rarely just one box. There's the Plex/Jellyfin host (often a NAS or a refurbished mini-PC), maybe a Raspberry Pi running Home Assistant, possibly an Intel NUC running Proxmox with a stack of LXC containers, and an Unraid box for storage. Each has its own SSH endpoint, its own admin web UI on a different port, and occasionally needs a desktop session for tinkering. SSHive handles them all from one window: SSH and SFTP for terminal/file work, VNC for the rare desktop session, tunnels for secure access to web UIs without exposing them on your home network. The profile system encourages tidy organization — group your home lab boxes in a "Home Lab" folder, set a different color tag per host so production and home-tinkering are visually distinct, save snippets like "system update" or "check container status" once and reuse on every box.

Tunnel admin UIs without port forwarding

Plex on 32400, Jellyfin on 8096, Home Assistant on 8123, Nextcloud on 80/443, Sonarr on 8989 — every self-hosted service has its own port. Don't expose them on your router's NAT (script kiddies scan home IPs daily). Instead, in each SSHive profile, add Local forwards mapping the service port to localhost on your Mac. Connect to your home server, and `http://localhost:8123` reaches Home Assistant, `http://localhost:32400/web` reaches Plex — encrypted via SSH, no Internet exposure.

Backup with SFTP from one window

Drag-and-drop a folder from `~/Documents` to your home server's `/backup/macbook/` directory. SSHive's SFTP pane shows transfer speed, ETA, total size. For automation, run `rsync` from the adjacent SSHive terminal — but for ad-hoc "I need this on the home server" moments, SFTP drag-drop wins on simplicity.

Multi-server management with broadcast

Three home boxes? Use broadcast for fleet-wide updates: open SSH to all three, hit Cmd+Shift+B, type `sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y`. Three updates in parallel, three live outputs side-by-side. Reboot in sequence with another broadcast (or skip it on the box running your VPN).

Frequently asked questions

How do I find my home server's IP from my Mac?+

On a local network, use your hostname (e.g., `unraid.local`, `pi.local`) — most Linux distros run avahi/Bonjour. If the hostname is unreliable, check your router's DHCP leases (most home routers expose this in their admin UI at 192.168.1.1).

Can I access my home server when I'm traveling?+

Two options: (1) Set up Tailscale or WireGuard on your home server and your Mac — then your home server is reachable as if you were home. (2) Forward port 22 from your router to the home server (use a non-standard external port like 2222), use SSH key auth only, fail2ban on the server. Then SSHive connects to `your-home-ip:2222`. Tailscale is the safer option.

Does SSHive replace Mosh for unstable connections?+

No — SSHive runs over plain SSH/TCP, not Mosh's UDP-based protocol. For very unstable links (mobile tethering, satellite), Mosh has roaming and predictive echo that SSHive doesn't. SSHive's auto-reconnect helps with intermittent drops but isn't a Mosh replacement.