How To Enable Two Factor Auth on DreamHost Hosting Accounts

Updated September 24, 2023

If you host a website over at DreamHost.com like we do here at groovyPost, I’ve got some great news. DreamHost just announced they have significantly increased the security of its systems by allowing you to enable two factor authentication when accessing its online management panel. DreamHost is calling it Multifactor Authentication and it’s based on Google’s 2-step verification platform, a two factor authentication system we’ve been talking a lot about these past few months.

I just finished adding two factor authentication to my account at DreamHost and I took some screenshots along the way. Enjoy!

How to enable two factor authentication on your DreamHost account

Click Security.

Under the Multifactor Authentication section, enter your Dreamhost password and click Get Started as shown below in my screenshot.

Now launch your Google Authenticator App on your mobile device and click the + sign to add a new account. Click the Scan Barcode button in the app and point it at the Dreamhost window to add this account to your mobile.

The Google Authenticator App should add it fairly quickly and present you with a code for this Dreamhost account. Enter the 6 digit number into the Dreamhost passcode box and click Activate!

Dreamhost settings will save and a Success! box will appear notifying you that your Dreamhost account is now protected with two factor authentication.

The next time you login to your account, Dreamhost will prompt you for your Username, Password AND your Multifactor Authentication Code from Google Authenticator. Before you enter it, you can hit the drop down as showed below to have Dreamhost trust the computer you’re running for 1 week or 1 month. If you clear your browser cookies however you will need to re-authenticate with your two factor auth code however.