“Connection timed out” and ECONNREFUSED

“Connection timed out” means evoftp waited for the server’s SSH service and nothing answered; ECONNREFUSED means the server answered only to say that nothing is listening on that port. In both cases no username or password was sent yet, so the fix is on the network side, not in your login. If the evoftp connection timed out on a server that worked before, jump to the blocked-address cause first; otherwise go through the causes in order. Overview: evoftp guide.

evoftp shows these errors exactly as the network library reports them, so the wording varies: “Timed out while waiting for handshake”, “connect ETIMEDOUT”, “connect ECONNREFUSED”, or “getaddrinfo ENOTFOUND”. The last one is a different problem — the hostname itself could not be looked up — and is the first cause below.

The hostname is not exactly the one on the service page

Open the client area, go to your seedbox service page and compare the hostname letter by letter with the Server field in evoftp (right-click the server in the sidebar → Edit…). It should look like box.myseedbox.site: no sftp:// in front, no slash or folder after it, no space at the end. A typo in the hostname produces ENOTFOUND; a hostname that belongs to another box produces a timeout or a refused connection.

The port is not 22

evoftp talks SFTP over SSH on port 22. If the Port field shows anything else, set it back to 22. Ports from other tools — the ruTorrent web port, a Plex port — are not SSH ports and will be refused.

Your network blocks SSH

Work, school and some hotel networks block outgoing SSH. The connection then times out every time, on every server. Test from a different network: tether to your phone’s hotspot and connect again. If it works on the hotspot, the network is the cause and only its administrator can open it.

A VPN is in the way

A VPN with a kill-switch drops any traffic that does not go through the tunnel, and some VPN exit points block port 22. Disconnect the VPN and try again. If you need the VPN on, add evoftp to its allowed applications or switch to a different exit location.

Your address is temporarily blocked

Several wrong passwords in a row temporarily block your address on the server. The symptom is a timeout on a server that worked before, right after a run of “Login failed” messages. Wait a while and try again, or open a ticket and support will clear the block. Before you retry, fix the password so the block is not renewed: see “Login failed — check the username and password”.

The server is in maintenance

If nothing above applies and the connection still fails, check the client area for a status notice on your server. During maintenance or a reboot the SSH service is down for everyone and there is nothing to fix on your side; try again later.

Note: evoftp gives up on a connection attempt after about 20 seconds. Waiting longer does not help; change something and try again.

Overview: evoftp guide.