Error Messages

You may get the message when connecting to server for following reasons:

• You have typed wrong host (domain) name on Login dialog.
• Your domain name is new and is not fully distributed to DSN servers yet.
• Connection was blocked by firewall. For local firewalls, particularly the one included in Windows XP SP2, note that the firewalls may not block port only, but also particular program (WinSCP).

Status 11 is reported by OpenSSH SFTP server, when it encouters corrupted SFTP packet or packet larger then 256 kB. Some versions of WinSCP can eventually send such a large packet. Version 3.7.6 solves the issue.

If ??? (from the subject) is very large number then the problem is typically caused by a message printed from some profile/logon script. It violates the SFTP protocol. Some of these scripts are executed even for non-interactive (no TTY) sessions, so they cannot print anything (nor ask user to type something).

The number ??? represents the first four bytes read from the server. In such case it is typicaly the first four characters of the message. You can usually see the full message if you login to your account using SSH terminal.

To fix the problem find out what command in what script does print the message. Once you find it move the command to proper script or remove it at all. The scripts are usually hidden (their name starts with dot) and are located in your home directory on the server.

There are other possible sources of the message in addition to the profile script. Some SSH servers for example prints message in case of fatal error (for example when they are unable to start SFTP server). You need to contact your server administrator.