SSH
Secure Shell (SSH) is a protocol that enables remote access to a server. It encompasses both the client-side application (ssh) and the server-side daemon (sshd). The most common implementation for Linux and BSD is OpenSSH.
Setup
On Linux, sshd runs by default. On BSDs, you will need to enable it. In /etc/rc.conf:
sshd_enable="YES"
Require Authentication by Key
Login Messages
Usually any messages printed on login are actually handled by PAM. This can be tricky to configure, so instead disable all login messages and recreate any desired messages.
To disable all PAM login messages for a user, just:
touch ~/.hushlogin
Default PAM configurations print /etc/motd and the output of /usr/bin/lastlog --user USERNAME. These can just as easily be added to ~/.bashrc.