[conspire] FTP connection refused

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Paul Zander (paulz at ieee.org):

> Seems that problems want to multiply.  
> 
> I tried to use ftp to copy files between machines.  I thought these
> machines would copy, even had filezilla configured, but something
> broke.  ping confirms that I have correct names.ftp  returns
> "connection refused" I looked at my old notes.  vsftpd is installed
> and running.  I even did a restart just to be sure.

Wow, ftp.  I thought *I* was a stubborn devotee of the antiquated.
Well, first, check to see if you can get a connection right there on
the server host:

[rick at linuxmafia]
~ $ ftp localhost
Connected to localhost.
220 (vsFTPd 2.0.5)
Name (localhost:rick): ftp
530 Please login with USER and PASS.
530 Please login with USER and PASS.
SSL not available
331 Please specify the password.
Password:
230 Login successful.
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
ftp> ls pub
200 PORT command successful. Consider using PASV.
150 Here comes the directory listing.
drwxr-sr-x    5 0        0            1024 Sep 16  2009 SMOF-BBS
drwxr-xr-x    2 0        0            1024 Jan 15  2010 hardware
drwxr-xr-x    3 1000     1000        16384 Nov 16 22:41 humour
drwxr-sr-x    2 0        0            1024 Sep 19  2017 java
drwxrwsr-x   18 0        0            1024 Nov 06  2013 jordan
drwxr-xr-x   15 0        0            1024 Jan 10  2012 linux
drwxr-xr-x    2 0        0            1024 Dec 09  2003 macintosh-os
drwxr-xr-x    3 0        0            1024 Dec 12  2003 ms-dos
drwxr-xr-x    6 0        0            1024 Sep 24  2016 ms-windows
drwxr-sr-x    2 0        0            1024 Dec 03  2002 netware
drwxr-xr-x    4 0        0            1024 Jun 13  2000 os2
drwxr-sr-x    6 0        0            7168 Jul 17  2008 palmos
drwxr-xr-x    2 1000     1000         2048 Sep 19  2017 rick-moen-soundfiles
drwxrwsr-x    7 0        0            1024 Dec 19  2015 skeptic
226 Directory send OK.
ftp> quit
221 Goodbye.
[rick at linuxmafia]
~ $

Do you get that?  If not, maybe you have a problem with vsftpd, or with 
firewalling, or with hostaccess files (/etc/hosts.deny,
/etc/hosts.allow).

FWIW, for some decades, I've supported ftp only for _anonymous_ access,
because allowing real credentials to be transmitted in plaintext across
(most) networks no longer seems a reasonable risk, now that we have
adequate alternatives -- such as scp and sftp.

Which I'd encourage you to use for any non-anonymous file transfers.