Page 1 of 1

Connection attempt failed

Posted: 2023-03-28 01:22
by skeithex
Hello, hoping someone might have an idea why I can't connect to a server.

Error is:

Error: Could not connect to server
Status: Waiting to retry...
Status: Connecting to IP address
Status: Connection attempt failed with "ECONNREFUSED - Connection refused by server".
Error: Could not connect to server

I have two servers, one is a virtual machine on vsphere client, the other a physical server, both windows 2016.

I have data on the physical server that I need on the vm, so I installed filezilla on the vm but when I try to connect to the physical server, it says the server refused the connection. I opened up the 22 port, turn off fire wall, AV isn't blocking it, made sure filezilla was connecting to the IP on the server, not sure why I can't get it to connect. I enabled ftp on the physical server by installing it through the server menu options.

Thanks for any help or ideas on this.

Re: Connection attempt failed

Posted: 2023-03-28 01:28
by boco
What type of server software runs on the physical server?

Re: Connection attempt failed

Posted: 2023-03-28 02:19
by skeithex
boco wrote:
2023-03-28 01:28
What type of server software runs on the physical server?
Both are running windows server 2016.

Re: Connection attempt failed

Posted: 2023-03-28 02:59
by boco
Not the Server OS, but the server software you want to connect to (FTP server or SFTP server). As FileZilla cannot connect to thin air, there MUST be some server software running on the target machine.

Example for FTP server software (port 21) is FileZilla Server (Standard or Pro Enterprise).
Example for SFTP server software is FileZilla Pro Enterprise Server.

Re: Connection attempt failed

Posted: 2023-03-28 03:10
by skeithex
boco wrote:
2023-03-28 02:59
Not the Server OS, but the server software you want to connect to (FTP server or SFTP server). As FileZilla cannot connect to thin air, there MUST be some server software running on the target machine.

Example for FTP server software (port 21) is FileZilla Server (Standard or Pro Enterprise).
Example for SFTP server software is FileZilla Pro Enterprise Server.
Ah my bad, I installed the ftp setup from the windows server manger window, https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/iis/c ... rver/start

Re: Connection attempt failed

Posted: 2023-03-28 03:24
by boco
That's an FTP server. Thus, port 22 would be wrong, you need to use 21. There are ports you need to open in the target server's firewall, the listening port 21 and the complete Passive port range you configured in the FTP server software.
As I don't think there is any router between VM and server, no port forwards are necessary. But, depending on VM configuration, it might be behind client NAT, making Passive mode mandatory if you don't want to do advanced configuration of the VM (depends on the VM software used).