Public and Private Keys Over SSH
I found a very good explanation of how to set up public key authentication over ssh. I’m always looking for it when I need it, and it always takes forever.
http://www.petefreitag.com/item/532.cfm
You can also use ssh-copy-id, I’m not sure what the specifics are behind it, but it seems to be available occasionally (Fedora 6) and not in other places (OS X 10.4.8).