Filezilla Says Connection Timed Out, Can't Update Site.

[lilychan]

I'm not sure if this is where I post for help about this.

But I have an account on the Tommy server, and I'm trying to use Filezilla to connect to my site. Nothing has changed about my settings or how I access it through Filezilla...just today, it will suddenly not go. Filezilla just sits at:

Status:    Resolving address of wildabyss.heliohost.us
Status:    Connecting to [2001:470:1:1ee::1002]:21...

for a long while, before moving to:

Error:    Connection timed out
Error:    Could not connect to server

I'm not sure why it's doing this. It looks like the Tommy server should be okay, based on Heliohost's main page, so I'm not sure what might be the problem. If I'm missing any crucial details, let me know! I'm not entirely sure what else I should provide.

[MoneyBroz]

Try using tommy.heliohost.org as the hostname and see if that fixes the issue.

[lilychan]

Just now, MoneyBroz said:

Try using tommy.heliohost.org as the hostname and see if that fixes the issue.

Okay that worked immediately, thank you!!

Why would that change suddenly? I've never used that one before, and it's always worked, so I'm curious how/why it changed!

[MoneyBroz]

I've never had any luck using my domain as the FTP hostname on any host, so i always use the server hostname instead. Krydos or someone else can further explain why using your domain as the hostname doesn't work.

[MoneyBroz]

i just discovered that Tommy's IPv6 address doesn't respond to requests for me but IPv4 works fine. it could be by design though instead of an error.

[lilychan]

Interesting how I've been using my domain name this whole time and it's been working fine...and I don't even know what an IPv6/IPv4 address even is. :X I struggle to follow a lot of this and just -barely- have enough knowledge to even have a site to begin with. xD

[MoneyBroz]

I just tested further and there seems to be an issue with Tommy's IPv6 address. i already relayed this issue in the staff channel and hopefully we can get this issue resolved.

[KazVee]

13 hours ago, lilychan said:

and I don't even know what an IPv6/IPv4 address even is. :X I struggle to follow a lot of this and just -barely- have enough knowledge to even have a site to begin with. xD

But you DO have your own site, and you're doing great! No one is born knowing anything about how to do any of this. 😄 The fact that you've pushed yourself to do something you don't 100% have all the knowledge on yet is worth celebrating, because not everyone would even have the courage to try.

An IPv4 address is the type you probably think of when someone mentions an IP address, they look like 192.168.1.1. Every IP address has to be unique, so we can only have about 4.3 billion of them before running out of numbers. It feels like 4.3 billion should be enough, but when you consider that every smartphone, computer, internet router, smart TV, etc. has its own IP address, eventually we'll run out of them.
IPv6 addresses look like 2001:0db8:85a3::8a2e:0370:7334 and we can have trillions of them so it's very unlikely we'll ever run out. They're also better than IPv4 in other ways, but they're not used everywhere yet, which is why we can use both to connect to the Tommy server, for example.

There's a lot more information on the different kinds of IPs that become important if you get more into computer networking and security. Personally I enjoyed learning the extra details, but I think if you can tell the difference between an IPv4 and an IPv6 just by looking at the different ways the numbers are written, you're probably further ahead than most people on the internet.

Your support request post is also a perfect example of the right way to ask for help. You gave us all the details about what you tried and the error messages you got, AND you checked the server status page before posting?! Most people don't know how to do all that! You're probably a lot more technically skilled than you might give yourself credit for, so keep doing what you're doing! 🙂

[lilychan]

On 2/6/2025 at 9:16 PM, MoneyBroz said:

Try using tommy.heliohost.org as the hostname and see if that fixes the issue.

Today, this is no longer working for me either. 😕 Not sure why it keeps changing!! I'm having the same issue in my main post, no matter which host name I try. Both will just sit there until it times out. Now getting,

Status:    Resolving address of tommy.heliohost.org
Status:    Connecting to [2001:470:1:1ee::1002]:21...
Error:    Connection timed out
Error:    Could not connect to server

I did notice about 30-60 minutes or so ago, my site was saying something about a Bad Gateway and wouldn't load. It seems to have fixed since then, but...I don't know if there could be any connection to the issues.

---

And thank you very much for the kind words (and explanations!) KazVee! I feel like I only accomplished it with a lot of help from my sister and friends. My friend is in fact the one who coded how a bulk of the site works, so I definitely can't take too much credit here. xD I did learn growing up that if I needed help, particularly with something electronic related, that the more details given the better. So I do try to keep that in mind when I need help! I also know it's very useless to come around being all, "It's broken, help." xD Not much anyone can do with that! I have high functioning autism, so I do have learning disabilities and really struggle to understand some things, but I learn best through repetition so whenever things go wrong, I do try to work with what I know might help, before reaching out. And when someone helps me, I feel like I mentally add that to things to remember for the future. So while I'm not good at just absorbing information and maintaining it, trial and error helps me build up resources for next time, you could say. xD

[KazVee]

The Bad Gateway error probably happened because Apache was restarting when you visited your site. It restarts every 2 hours: https://wiki.helionet.org/502_Bad_Gateway

I have the same issues connecting to my Tommy account, using tommy.heliohost.org as the hostname, and reported it in the staff channel and we'll be looking into it further.

Usually, using tommy.heliohost.org as the hostname is the right way to connect. But while this issue is happening, you can try a workaround and use the IPv4 address as hostname instead. We try not to post our server IP addresses publicly on the forum for security reasons, but here's how to find the IP address to use:
Login > Plesk > Websites & Domains > [domain name] > and check at the bottom of the page

You will see something similar to: IP address ##.##.###.##(v4), and then also the IPv6 IP that we don't need to worry about for now.
Copy the IPv4 address (but not the "(v4)" part, just the numbers before it), and paste that into your FileZilla where you have the Host as tommy.heliohost.org
That should allow you to connect over FTP in the meantime, but please let us know if you still have trouble.

Also, I think you have a really excellent approach to troubleshooting, definitely more details are always better, and it's always good to recognize when a problem might be similar enough to something you've solved before, to at least have an idea of where to start tackling it! Repetition helps me retain what I've learned too. I still have to look loads of things up, but googling for answers feels faster the 2nd, 3rd, or even 7th time I have to do it. 😄

[lilychan]

Ahh I see! I've seen the bad gateway errors occasionally before, and they often sort themselves out pretty quick, which is why I gave it time rather than reported it. But I thought I'd make a note just in case it had anything to do with it. Good to know it's nothing to worry about though!

I had no idea you could find the IP address for your site there! Thank you very much for the directions!! I found it, and gave it a try, and it worked and let me add to my site! Thank you again for the help!!

Haha yes, I've definitely done my share of Googling! It can be frustrating though when you can't find the results you need. I've had a few issues in the past that Google was absolutely no help with, and I've had to seek out people and forums for help instead. I'm really glad people are willing to take the time to help others out. When I get severely stuck, sometimes I don't know what I'd do without other people!! xD