Urgent Problem. Having problems with FTP and FreeBSD

Hello there,

I'm having problems connecting via FTP to my freebsd box. Comes up with "connection refused"

Does anyone know how I can troubleshoot this one. I need to get in to the machine to copy some files across.

cheers,

Adam

1) Check and make sure FTPd is up and running. Check /etc/inetd.conf.
2) Check TCP Wrappers. The control file is -> /etc/hosts.allow.
3) Check your firewall ruleset, if any.

Thanks a heap for that. I uncommented out the bit relating to FTP in the inetd.conf, rebooted and everythings fine now.

cheers,

Adam

You could also start ftpd explicitly on start up in rc.local as an alternative to using inetd.

Thanks for your suggestion. As I'm a bit new at FreeBSD/Unix - what's the difference between the two methods ?

cheers,

Adam

>> what's the difference between the two methods ?

When running FTPd as a daemon, you can't configure access restriction with TCP Wrappers. It also takes more resource when launching multiple daemons. Unlike proftpd and apache where you can configure those when running out of inetd.
BTW, I don't trust inetd and I have it completely disabled for all my *BSD boxes. If I have a need to run FTP server, I either run Proftpd standalone or use a inetd replacement -> tcpserver.

Like I always said, djb (qmail author) makes the most secure software on earth. If there exists a djb software that is intended to be a replacement (except publicfile to replace Apache), follow his advice and just do so. Just to name a few:
- dnscache to replace BIND cache
- tinydns+axfrdns to replace BIND authoritative DNS server
- qmail to replace sendmail
- tcpserver to replace inetd
- multilog to replace syslogd