diff --git a/scripts/remote.py b/scripts/remote.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..14db465
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/remote.py
@@ -0,0 +1,79 @@
+class Remote:
+    """
+    Container class for SSH functionality. Needs to be used in a with statement.
+    
+    with Remote() as remote:
+      remote.connect("github.com", "me", "mypassword");
+    
+    """
+
+    ssh_client = None
+    user, password = None, None
+
+    def __enter__(self):
+        if self._has_paramiko():
+            self.ssh_client = paramiko.SSHClient()
+            self.ssh_client.set_missing_host_key_policy(paramiko.AutoAddPolicy())
+            paramiko.util.log_to_file("C:\\tmp\\paramiko.log")
+        return self
+
+
+    def __exit__(self, exc_type, exc_val, exc_tb):
+
+        try:
+            if self.ssh_client is not None:
+                self.ssh_client.close()
+        except:
+            print "received an exception closing the ssh connection."
+        finally:
+            self.ssh_client = None
+
+
+    def connect(self, server, username=None, password=None):
+
+        if not self._has_paramiko():
+            return
+
+        if username is None and password is None \
+            and self.user is None and self.password is None:
+            self._get_auth()
+        else:
+            self.user = username
+            self.password = password
+
+        try:
+            self.ssh_client.connect(server, username=self.user, password=self.password)
+        except paramiko.AuthenticationException:
+            print "you entered an incorrect username or password.  Please try again"
+            self._get_auth()
+            try:
+                self.ssh_client.connect(server, username=self.user, password=self.password)
+            except:
+                print "you entered an incorrect username or password a second time. Exiting"
+                sys.exit(1)
+
+    def get_sftp(self):
+
+        transport = self.ssh_client.get_transport()
+        return transport.open_sftp_client()
+
+    def execute(self, command, sudo=False):
+
+        if not self._has_paramiko():
+            return None, None, None
+
+        stdin, stdout, stderr = self.ssh_client.exec_command(command)
+        if sudo:
+            stdin.write(self.password + '\n')
+            stdin.flush()
+
+        return stdin, stdout, stderr
+
+    def _get_auth(self):
+        print "Enter your ssh credentials"
+        self.user = raw_input("Enter user name: ")
+        self.password = getpass.getpass("Enter your password: ")
+
+
+    def _has_paramiko(self):
+        return 'paramiko' in sys.modules.keys()