I'm going to place both my question and answer here, since I had a very difficult time figuring it out. (Also I started out trying to install the "ssh" library, but it has been superceded by the "paramiko" library of the same function. I may have missed a replacement here, please forgive if I have.)
Question: I need to install the "paramiko" library on a windows 7 system.
Pip and easy_install both give errors when trying to install the "Crypto" module.
I headed down a number of blind alleys involving Visual C and Visual Studio without success.
Answer:(in two parts) 1) Install the crypto library from a binary, like from here:
http://www.voidspace.org.uk/python/modules.shtml#pycrypto
This installs the crypto library, but with a different capitalization than the paramiko library expects. So I learned a little trick over here:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/19623267/importerror-no-module-named-crypto-cipher
with the answer by user "pho" to add these lines to the python program:
import crypto
import sys
sys.modules['Crypto'] = crypto
Now I am able to install, and run, the paramiko library. I hope this helps others find the solution more quickly.