ssh_exchange_identification: Connection closed by remote host (solved)

2005 Jan 7 at 11:13 » Tagged as :

Kept getting this error message when trying to connect to my server. As usually when you google you find all kinds of pundits giving stupid answers in many a mailing list.

In this case all the answers said it's a problem with the hosts.allow file or libwrap. libwrap my foot. It's just a matter of connections not being closed properly and the number of allowed connections being used up.

The server in question, the one that refused to let me in, is a server that I login to on an almost daily basis. On a previous occaision I had the exact same message when I had too many upload and downloads threads running with our sftp client, so I knew straight away what the problem was.

So what's the solution: sleep on it! I am serious, by the time you call your hosting companies customer support and they get around to restarting your server (which for a company like aitcom can be measured in days) the problem would have solved itself when the connections timed out.

If you keep attempting to reconnect this will not happen. So close all your ssh and sftp clients and go for a walk when you come back you will find that you can login again.

see the follow up ...