How To Fix “Connection Refused By Port 22” On Debian/Ubuntu.
In this article we will explore different ways we can resolve the Connection Refused issue on an Ubuntu/Debian system.
Verify OpenSSH Installation
First, check if OpenSSH is installed on your system or not. The command mentioned below will verify it.
sudo apt list --installed | grep openssh-server
In case OpenSSH is not installed, we will install it by executing the following command:
sudo apt install openssh-server
Check SSH Service
Let’s now check what’s the status of the SSH service on our system. It should be active or in the running state. The reason why you are getting a connection refused error could be the inactive state of SSH on your system. Run the following command to check the status:
sudo service ssh status
The output tells us it is in the active (running state).
If your SSH service is inactive, you can start it by executing the following commands:
sudo service ssh start
sudo service ssh restart
Check SSH Server Listening Port
Before trying to connect, first, verify which port is being used by the SSH server to listen to new connections.
ssh [username]@[remoteserver IP or hostname]
Issue the following command to check on which port the OpenSSH server is listening:
sudo netstat -ltnp | grep sshd
As we can see 22 port is in use by OpenSSH to listen to connections.
In case, some other port is being used in place of 22, you will issue the command like this:
ssh -p [Port] [username]@[ip_address]
Allow SSH in Firewall
To allow the port through firewall, execute this command:
sudo ufw allow port /tcp
If a port other than 22 is being used, you will issue the command like this:
sudo ufw allow 2244/tcp
Once the rules are updated, you will get this output on the terminal:
Reload the firewall with this command to update the rules:
sudo ufw reload
Now check the status of firewall to verify if the SSH port has been allowed or not.
sudo ufw status
You will see the following message if you are using port 2244 for SSH:
Conclusion
In today’s guide, we discussed several reasons that could be causing the Connection refused error and several ways to resolve this issue.
