Insight from /var/log/secure Jan 10 20:28:56 z9m9z sshd[2705]: Authentication refused: bad ownership or modes for file /home/rgm/.ssh/authorized_keys So here are all of the permissions, I think: starting at root: drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Jan 5 13:33 home drwx------ 4 rgm rgm 4096 Jan 10 21:13 rgm drwxrwxr-x 2 rgm rgm 4096 Jan 10 20:28 .ssh -rw-rw-r-- 1 rgm rgm 1101 Jan 10 20:25 authorized_keys so what now????