telnet: Unable to connect to remote host: Connection refused

[Dan Early]

I have a remote server that has been inaccessible for several days. It returns the above message when you try to telnet to it. (You cannot ftp to it either.) I can ping the system and to a traceroute to it. HP has been on site to replace an interface card, which didn't help. I was able to log into the system once long enough to do a couple of commands. Saw no full filesystems, swapinfo was ok. It was not running duplicate syslogd's. Then it dropped the connection. HP support told me it was a router problem, but I don't think so - ping goes both ways. Any ideas appreciated.

[Berlene Herren]

Have you checked for duplicate IP addresses? Take a look at the nettl log

#netfmt -f /var/adm/nettl.LOG00 > /tmp/logfile

Berlene

[Rita C Workman]

Based on what you say...it would seem that this is a new condition and that you could telnet before.
If I'm correct in my understanding, a couple possibilities 1-is that your drivers have 'gone awry'.
Try taking a look at these threads:
http://my1.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,1150,0x87657e990647d4118fee0090279cd0f9,00.html
For possible timeout problem:
http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,1150,0x86d9f841489fd4118fef0090279cd0f9,00.html

/rcw

[Patrick Wallek]

You might also check you /var/adm/inetd.sec file and see if someone has put entries in it to deny telnet and ftp.

[Richard Darling]

Dan, is there anyone at the remote site that can log in for you to do some trouble shooting?

Maybe the first thing they could do is reboot the system...then check the basics...

1) are the telnet and ftp daemons running?
2) are the services setup for the proper ports in /etc/services?
3) log into the router to see if it is allowing the protocols and the ports are opened...try rebooting the router...
4) what is new? the router?

When my ISP first installed our DSL router I could ping our system, but could not log in. The router had not been setup properly...

RD

[Joseph C. Denman]

Can anyone at the remote site telnet in?

It could be the router. The router may be leting ICMP traffic through, but not telnet or FTP.

[John Waller]

On your local machine after the ping try a arp . This should return the MAC address of whatever is running the IP address of your remote machine. If you get someone at the remote site to do a lanscan the address's should match. It may be an idea to do a few arp commands to try to indentify a duplicate IP address. Other simple things I would look at is to make sure inetd is running. This would allow a ping but would not let in any network services.

[Shannon Petry]

I had a similar problem with an ISP. They turned on NAT in the router, so I could not telnet in from outside, but from inside there was no problem.

IF the router is running NAT, you can not connect with anything! :( Some routers let you specify a connect host, but it will not sync. with a telnet or ftp server because the IP for client and the NATTED server dont match...

Regards,
Shannon