FTP Connection refused error – Solution to problem

by nixCraft on April 13, 2006 · 15 comments· last updated at November 28, 2006

If you get an error (ftp Connection refused) when using FTP client under Linux such as Connection refused, then you can fix this problem using following method.

Make sure ftp server installed

Make sure ftp server installed and service is running. Under Debian Linux you can use dpkg command to verify that ftp server installed:
$ dpkg -l | grep -i "ftp"Output:

ii  ftpd                           0.17-21                       FTP server

OR run following command:
$ dpkg -l | grep -i ftp
Under Red Hat/Novell Suse/Fedora Linux try rpm command:
# rpm -qa | grep -i "*ftp*"
In any case if you have the ftp package installed it will return output. If the ftp package is not installed, it will notify you or it will not give you any output at all. Naturally next logical step is to install FTP server.

Under Red Hat/Fedora Linux install vsftpd server as follows:
# up2date vsftpd
OR if you are using Fedora Linux use yum:
# yum install vsftpd
If you are using Debian Linux use apt-get command:
# apt-get install vsftpd
Next configure vsftpd by modifying /etc/vsftpd.conf file.

Is ftp server running (is port 21 open)?

Login to ftp server using ssh and try to telnet port 21 (to see port is open or not):
$ telnet localhost 21
Next run netstat -tulpn command to see if port 21 is in open:
$ netstat -tulpn | grep :21

Output:

tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:21             0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN

OR try following command:
$ netstat -a | grep ftpOutput:

tcp        0      0 *:ftp                   *:*                     LISTEN

If port is not open, start ftp server /service. Under RedHat/Fedora Linux use service command:
# service vsftpd start
Under Debian Linux use following command:
# /etc/init.d/vsftpd start

FTP user permissions

Is particular user not allowed to use your vsftpd ftp server, then make sure user got permission to use your ftp server. File /etc/ftpusers - list of users disallowed use vsftpd server access. Make sure user name is not in this file.

Security or Firewall

Make sure iptables firewall/tcpd does not block access to your ftp server. Run following command on ftp server (login over ssh):
# iptables -L -nOutput:

Chain INPUT (policy DROP)
target     prot opt source               destination
ACCEPT     all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0
ACCEPT     all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0           state RELATED,ESTABLISHED
ACCEPT     tcp  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0           tcp dpts:6881:6882
ACCEPT     udp  --  202.54.1.254         0.0.0.0/0           udp dpt:514
ACCEPT     tcp  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0           tcp dpts:80 state NEW,RELATED,ESTABLISHED
LOG        all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0           LOG flags 0 level 4
DROP       all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0
Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT)
target     prot opt source               destination
Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target     prot opt source               destination
ACCEPT     all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0

Above output does not allows port 21 (port 21 is blocked by firewall). You need to use iptables rules to open port 21. Make sure file /etc/hosts.deny (TCPD wrappers) does not block access to port 21 for your ftp host.

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{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Paul Greenwood November 28, 2006 at 7:41 am

Thanks the command service vsftpd start resolved temporarily my issue. I am now searching for where to add this so that this service starts at run level 3

2 nixcraft November 28, 2006 at 8:53 am

Paul,

If you are using Redhat/CentOS/Fedora Core use ntsysv command to turn on vsftpd. If you are using other distro let me know name of distro.

ntsysv

3 Anonymous June 15, 2010 at 5:00 pm: Awesome! Thanks for this command!
Reply

4 MAKKI AKASHA March 3, 2007 at 9:34 am

hi all iam working in encryptor project when iwant testing this project with ftp some problems was appeared like stalled

PLEASE HELP ME

THANKS FOR ALL

5 jjcrazy August 17, 2007 at 5:06 pm

Thanks you , The command ” service vsftpd start ”
resolved my question . Have anywhere to study linux configure __come from china

6 mohamed yafiu August 23, 2007 at 7:19 am

hei…

i can connect to the ftp port buy my user is not authorized to login? how can i fix this ?

7 Matthew September 25, 2007 at 2:01 pm

I tried everything here, my service is running, everything is working on the port 21. But when I try to log in with a user, this is the error I get:

Transfer channel can’t be opened. Reason: A socket operation was attempted to an unreachable host.
Error: Could not retrieve directory listing

Anyone know why this is happening? I have made sure that iptables isn’t blocking my port and its still not working.

8 juno332 April 7, 2008 at 12:01 am

nice article i almost my ftp server using your help, but i had some firewall issues which i solved from another blog, Installing proftpd Thanks Guys you all brillaint .. my ftp server is working fine.

9 Bala October 9, 2009 at 9:28 am

I was not able to use ftp for long time on a linux machine. I finally tried to find the solution, got the solution here immediately.

10 C Moore October 21, 2009 at 9:57 am

Excellent, got the ftp working, would have been lost without knowing which service to look for and appropriate configuration file.

11 roger mathews January 16, 2010 at 7:24 pm

Thank you all, however I TURNED OFF YAHOO COOKIES AAND I can not turn them on, I am still looking sincerely Roger.

12 Reggie June 14, 2011 at 4:23 pm

Just to note that for permissions on vsftpd for RedHat based distros the ftpusers file and others are here /etc/vsftpd/ftpusers NOT simply under /etc/ftpusers

Great article all the same because it helped me out! I was looking for /etc/ftpusers but once I found this article pointing to vsftpd it all came together.

13 praneeth July 18, 2011 at 10:50 pm

first try to ftp that server and see if you are able to connect..
command: ftp server_name.

14 Rajat February 10, 2012 at 1:20 am

Hmmm…great to find out, there were witohut a doubt a number of points that I hadn’t thought of before.

15 Bonduu October 31, 2012 at 10:03 am

I had same problem,gave me a lil headache trying to find a solution to it, I always got “connect: Connection refused” error.
Then to resolve it, I checked my Redhat 5 server to see if ftp service is running,but alas it wasn’t just simply started it all everything became al-right.

#service vsftpd start

the cmd above was used to start my ftp service.