"localhost" is, I assume, 127.0.0.1, while
"ip_address" is, I assume, some other IP
address. (If you would post actual commands
with actual output, I might not need to
_assume_ anything.) The usual explanation
for a pause like this is that the server
(here, the FTP server) is trying to look up
the name associated with the IP address of
the client which is connecting to it. It
would be unusual if such a reverse look-up of
127.0.0.1 were anything but trouble-free, but
it's more likely that there's a DNS problem
which causes a reverse look-up of
"ip_address" to fail (often slowly). As a
quick test, you could try (on the server):
nslookup ip_address
If that's slow, then you probably have a
reverse DNS problem.
