yet another 'network error: connection refused'

WinSCP 4.3.7 on Windows 10, trying to connect to Windows Server 2012.

A bit of background:
The target server is a VM running under Oracle VirtualBox on my workstation.

Yesterday my workstation was upgraded from Windows 7 Pro to Windows 10.

Prior to the upgrade I had no problem making this connection to this VM.

After the upgrade of the workstation to Win 10, I had to re-install WinSCP. I now have 4.3.7 and do not know what version I had prior.

I also have several VMs running Linux and have no problem getting a WinSCP connection to them.

I am using the default port/protocol of 22/sftp. If I change to 21/ftp, it will at least prompt for username/pswd, but still returns with 'access denied'. If using 22/sftp it does not even prompt for credentials. In neither case am I supplying credentials as a property of the connection definition.

The firewall on the target server is turned off.

UPdate: I have since discovered two additional pieces of the puzzle
1) The problem manifests on live servers in my data center, not just the vm on my workstation.
2) The problem manifests with other sftp clients, namely FileZilla.

So it's looking like it's not a WinSCP issue, per se. But perhaps someone here will have some insights?

This may end up being a dead-end, but let me summarize what I have found out to this point:

- I have 3 windows servers, all 2012r2. Two are physical servers in my data center and one is a vm on my workstation. The vm is on a private "hostonly" network that is not routeable outside of my workstation and has no visibility on the corporate network.

- Until this week I have had no problem using an sftp client to connect to all 3 of these servers to copy files around.

- Thinking the problem may be tied to the upgrade of my workstation (Win7 to Win10) I located a remaining Win7 workstation. The problem reproduced there, eliminating the Win10 angle.

- The problem reproduces regardless of client -- WinScp, FileZilla, UltraEdit, or command line 'sftp'

- Working with my sys admin, we determined that there is no process listening on port 22 on any of the servers. He states that this is normal for our standard config of the physical servers as they do not install ssh/sftp when they build a server. So nothing there has changed, and I know that nothing has changed on my VM. From this, my previous sftp client operations should never have worked . . .

From a practical level, I can work around it by mapping drives or sharing local resources through Remote Desktop. But it is certainly a curious situation.

If you cannot reach port 22 from the client machine, there's nothing we can help you with here. Sorry.

I must be a little slow. I thought at one time i knew a little about computers and all that goes with it. MY PROBLEM is this:
I have a rootsweb website and they have changed from their file manager to filezilla. Well when it wouldn't let me connect I downloaded a couple more programs including WinSCP which I would like to stick with.
all of the programs tell me that it couldn't connect because it has timed out,.I also seemed to all of a sudden have trouble connecting to my wifi, I have had to hook the Ethernet to my laptop. (Hp notebook - windows 8 - )
Can Someone please walk me through this so that i get this right.
I know that I didn't word this properly sorry

stacelea70 wrote:

I must be a little slow. I thought at one time i knew a little about computers and all that goes with it. MY PROBLEM is this:
I have a rootsweb website and they have changed from their file manager to filezilla. Well when it wouldn't let me connect I downloaded a couple more programs including WinSCP which I would like to stick with.
all of the programs tell me that it couldn't connect because it has timed out,.I also seemed to all of a sudden have trouble connecting to my wifi, I have had to hook the Ethernet to my laptop. (Hp notebook - windows 8 - )
Can Someone please walk me through this so that i get this right.
I know that I didn't word this properly sorry

Sorry, but we cannot help you with a network connectivity to your web server.
Did you try to ping the server's hostname/IP address?