# problem with remote login for Pure-ftpd

## nimmsis

hello.

I have a quite interesting error.

Seems i cant login to pure-ftpd from a remote host, locally its fine but not over the network.

When I login I get a 

```
Connected with xx.xxx.xxx.xxx. Waiting for welcome message...

Disconnected from server 
```

And I get the following message in /var/log/messages:

```
 pure-ftpd: (?@?) [ERROR] Sorry, invalid address given
```

any ideas?

i have switched to proftpd, witch works perfect. but in soemone have a idea, feel free to post for future reference, since i didnt find any solution about the /var/log/messages error on the internet.

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## PinoM

I was solving the same problem. How do you specify the binding in /etc/conf.d/pure-ftpd ? Try pass directly the IP address to -S option and not host name. It helped in my case ...

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## InfotechCapital

I know this is an old post, but because there is so little information available about this error, I had to resort to a diligent foreign language search, and I'd like to help prevent that for someone else. It appears that this message is related to both the "hosts" file and dns.

In my case, the error only surfaced after the client relocated a server to another provider, thus changing IPs (and in the process breaking dns).

Adding the -S flag did NOT help, but adding the -H flag solved it immediately. The configuration file does not quite do this justice:

```
-H [ By default, fully-qualified host names are logged. The '-H' flag avoids host names resolution. ]
```

but 'man pure-ftpd' is a bit more clear:

```
-H     Don't  resolve host names ("192.0.34.166" will be logged instead

              of "www.example.com"). It can significantly speed up connections

              and reduce bandwidth usage on busy servers. Use it especially on

              public FTP sites.

```

(edit) Incidentally, other places have recommended using the "-P" flag for such cases where there's a firewall not properly implementing NAT. That was also not the case for me; if you're reading this, it might be for you.

.

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## Peach

had the very same problem during a down time of the main router/gateway and -H flag solved it

thanks InfotechCapital

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