Bob, You haven't given us much to go on, but here's a shot: I'm assuming that this is the first time you've tried this. If so then you might not have configured inetd or xinetd to start the the ftp service when it detects an incoming ftp connection. My system ( Redhat 7.1 Intel) uses xinetd and the config files are in the directory /etc/xinetd; there's one for each service. Try to identify the file that corresponds to your ftp service. Again mine is named 'wu-ftpd' and it's a short file. Open the file with a text editor and look for a line that says 'disable = yes' and change the yes to a no, or delete the line completely. This done, you'll need to restart xinetd (or inetd). On my system I'd enter the command /etc/rc.d/init.d/xinetd restart to accomplish this. Perhaps that'll get you over the hump on this one. But there are other possibilities as well. If this doesn't work, please take a look at your log files, they can provide you (and us!) with valuable clues as to the nature of the problem. It's not uncommon for posters to include short, pertinent portions of a log file for us to see. Another strong possibility is that a packet filter is coming into play and that you incoming ftp request is just being ignored. That's handled by 'ipchains' or 'iptables' and is typically setup at startup time. It that appears to be the case, read the init.d script and see where it's looking for its configuration file, then check *that* file for any special handling of 'ftp' ports 21 and 20. The strongest likelyhood is that both of the above things need to be done. But, be warned about FTP in general: unless you're using it off the internet, historically it's been the source of many breakins and cannot be considered secure by nomal users as login and password are passed in cleartext over the internet. Consider using ssh and scp (components of OpenSSH) instead -- there's client software available for non-linux OSs too. -Peter On 3/7/2002 11:23 PM, babine <babinefamily@charter.net> wrote:

When I try to ftp to my server, i get a connection time out. Why is it happening?     Bob