Customize SSH login

After you have set up a secure  SSH server maybe you would like to customize your login, to look a bit more personal. e.g. like the penrose triangle

     ____  ____  ____  ____                      ______________________
    /\   \/\   \/\   \/\   \                    /\                     \
   /  \___\ \___\ \___\ \___\                  /  \    _________________\
   \  / __/_/   / /   / /   /                  \   \   \                /
    \/_/\   \__/\/___/\/___/                    \   \   \__________    /
      /  \___\    /  \___\                       \   \   \    /   /   /
      \  / __/_  _\  /   /                        \   \   \  /   /   /
       \/_/\   \/\ \/___/                          \   \   \/   /   /
         /  \__/  \___\                             \   \  /   /   /
         \  / _\  /   /                              \   \/   /   /
          \/_/\ \/___/                                \      /   /
            /  \___\                                   \    /   /
            \  /   /                                    \  /   /
             \/___/                                      \/___/

 (source: wikipedia)

You can also create an ASCII Art from any picture. There are some sites where you can upload your picture and create an ASCII pic out of it, look here. Once you connect via SSH e.g.  > ssh user@myraspberry.pi you see the welcome text or logo, which is defined in your sshd config. First you have to create the file containing the hello message, e.g.  

 $ sudo vim /etc/ssh/welcome.msg  
     ____  ____  ____  ____                   |
    /\   \/\   \/\   \/\   \                  |
   /  \___\ \___\ \___\ \___\                 |
   \  / __/_/   / /   / /   /                 |
    \/_/\   \__/\/___/\/___/                  |
      /  \___\    /  \___\                    |
      \  / __/_  _\  /   /                    |
       \/_/\   \/\ \/___/                     |
         /  \__/  \___\                       |
         \  / _\  /   /                       |
          \/_/\ \/___/                        |
            /  \___\                          |
            \  /   /                          |
             \/___/                           |
WELCOME TO MY RASPBERRY PI!
PLEASE AUTHENTICATE!

In the next step, we have to tell our ssh daemon where to find this welcome message, therefore we have to change the 'Banner' entry in the sshd config to the location of our welcome message:

$ sudo vim /etc/ssh/sshd_config 

[...]
Banner /etc/ssh/welcome.msg

After that, we have to restart sshd:

$ sudo service sshd restart

We can also add another welcome message for the users, which are already authenticated by editing the MOTD file:  

$ sudo vim /etc/motd 

Once finished, we again have to restart the ssh daemon on the raspberry and then we can try this thing out. On connecting to our pi we should now see the pi ASCII logo and after entering the password, we should be informed about the news in our motd file.