Hi Colin,

Which server do you use? Ubuntu ?
For now I will assume it is a Linux based server.

since you are using putty and also have putty gen installed you can create a key pair with puttygen.

Login to your new user account or switch to it from within your root login (# su newuser)

a) Create .ssh directory and apply proper permissions
# mkdir ~/.ssh && chmod 700 ~/.ssh

b) Create the file to store your public get in and apply permissions
# touch ~/.ssh/authorizedkeys && chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorizedkeys

c) From your puttygen window right click on the public key string select all and copy. Make sure to safe the private key to your computer

d) Back to your console edit the authorizedkeys file and paste your public key into it
# vi ~/.ssh/authorizedkeys

e) Either point to the private key within putty or launch pagent and load your private key in.

Note: With the pagent running you don’t need to reference the private key within your putty session. just ip and user.

f) Use putty and login using your new user name instead of root

This should do it, sir.