ssh connection refused
Hi I'm having a problem with my ssh, which is magically stopped working and I couldn't figure out why. The message it give is:
ssh: connect to host <host> port 22: Connection refused
I don't see any error messages when I write dmesg but I'm getting following from telnet localhost 22
Trying 127.0.0.1...
telnet: Unable to connect to remote host: Connection refused
I tried the solutions that I saw in some similar cases [1] and [2] but it still didn't solve my problem the entries and outputs are as follows:
>> sudo iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport ssh -j ACCEPT
>> sudo iptables -L
Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination
ACCEPT tcp -- anywhere anywhere tcp dpt:ssh
Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination
Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination
Note that this was already ACCEPT I didn't had any problem even before entering the command sudo iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport ssh -j ACCEPT. I also tried to reboot ssh but it didn't change anything
>>netstat -a | egrep 'Proto|LISTEN'
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address Foreign Address State
tcp 0 0 localhost:20128 *:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 localhost:17600 *:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 localhost:20129 *:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 localhost:17603 *:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 localhost:21128 *:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 deathstar:domain *:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 localhost:ipp *:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 *:db-lsp *:* LISTEN
tcp6 0 0 ip6-localhost:ipp [::]:* LISTEN
tcp6 0 0 [::]:db-lsp [::]:* LISTEN
I don't know what else to try so hope this is enough to solve the problem.
Rest is added after @Ashu's comment
sudo lsof -i | grep ssh
nothing happened
>>netstat -l --numeric-ports | grep 22
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 1618183 @jack-com.canonical.Unity.Master.Scope.files.T1731348652205882
>>sudo iptables --list
Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination
ACCEPT tcp -- anywhere anywhere tcp dpt:ssh
Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination
Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination
Eddited after @TheSchwa's comment
>>ps aux | grep sshd
jack 3711 0.0 0.0 15944 2220 pts/26 S+ 14:08 0:00 grep --color=auto sshd
I first tried to remove and reinstall ssh but it didn't work for me then I tried to purge it:
sudo apt-get purge openssh-server
sudo apt-get install openssh-server
so now its working.
TCP error "Connection refused" means that there is a host active on this IP address but the port you were trying to connect to (22 for ssh) is not open.
First of all double check your host name and/or IP address.
The most likely reason is either somebody stopped the ssh daemon or somebody configured it to use an alternative port instead of the default 22.
If you have physical access to your server logon to that server and type in command sudo netstat -tupan. Ideally you should see a line like:
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:22 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 1053/sshd
If you don't try starting sshd and/or checking whether it is configured to listen on port 22.
EDIT
The bits to focus on are:
:22 - port 22
LISTEN - there is a process running and expecting incoming connections on port 22
sshd - the name of the process.
If you can't see a line like that then perhaps your ssh server is badly configured and fails to start. Try this page for instructions how to run it in the foreground and troubleshoot it.