can not ftp as joe user

[Nick D'Angelo]

HPUX 10.20
R Class Server

When I try to ftp as a 'regular user' - not root, I get an error msg as follows:

ftp spock
ftp: spock: Unknown host

But I am successful at ftp'ing as root to the same host.

Suggestions?

[Alan Casey · Accepted solution]

Try to ping the host as this user.
Also check permissions on:

/etc/hosts
/etc/nsswitch.conf
/etc/resolv.conf

Make sure everybody has read access to these.
Check also,
/etc/ftpusers does NOT contain the username you are using.

[Ian Dennison_1]

Can the user ping 'spock'? If it was a User permissions problem, I would have expected a different error to 'unknown host'.

Share and Enjoy! Ian

[Nick D'Angelo]

Thanks, sometimes you can not see the trees for the forest.

The nsswitch.conf file was NOT readable by anyone other than root.

Thanks.