DigitalOcean SSH Connection Refused : Causes and Solutions

How to Fix the SSH Connection Refused in DigitalOcean?

SSH is a network protocol that allows server administrators to safely access the server from an unsecured network. It’s one of the most effective ways to connect to remote Linux servers. Moreover, it is included by default in most Linux distributions.

However, the connection request may be denied at times. This is when we get the error “SSH connection denied in DigitalOcean,” which is fairly common. When the request is refused by the host, this message is sent to the droplet owners. Surprisingly, there are four potential causes for this error.

• Connection to the SSH Service Fails

• SSH Port Selection Mistake

• The firewall has been restricted.

• Wrong IP Address for the Host

SSH Service Connection Fails (Cause & Solution)

The SSH service relies on the sshd daemon to listen for incoming connections in this scenario. It also manages terminal connections, user authentication, and other tasks. In Digital Ocean servers, if the service crashes, it causes a connection rejection, which results in an SSH connection refusal error.

We can take care of this, according to our Support Techs, by finding the root source of the service failure. The cause could be anything from disc errors to traffic jams, DDoS attacks, and resource failures, among other things.

Killing the procedure and restarting the service can be effective if the backend service fails or does not respond. To restart the SSH service, for example, run the following command:

systemctl restart sshd

After that, we can use the following command to ensure SSH is up and running:

sshd.service – OpenSSH server daemon

If successful, we will get an output similar to the one below:

Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/sshd.service; enabled)

Active: active (running) since Mon xxx-xx-xx xx:xx:xx GMT; x days ago

Wrong SSH Port Selection (Cause & Solution)

Another cause of the SSH Connection Refused error in DigitalOcean is selecting the incorrect SSH Port. This error message is likely to appear if you are accessing your servers via the incorrect port.

To resolve the error, we recommend correcting the SSH port. This entails first connecting to the droplet via a console and inspecting the SSH configuration file. /etc/ssh/sshd config is the default location for the SSH configuration file.

Once we’ve opened the file, we’ll need to find the Port Parameter and change it. We can also use the netstat command to see which SSH port is currently in use.

Restriction of the firewall (Causes & Solution)

Invalid firewall configurations are another cause of the SSH connection refused error. The firewall rules should be checked first, according to our Support Techs. Then, using the following command, we must test connectivity to the SSH port from the outside network:

telnet IP PORT

Replace IP and PORT/strong with the IP address of the droplet and the SSH port, respectively.

Wrong Host IP Address Selection (Cause & Solution)

An incorrect IP address or an IP conflict would be the final possible cause of the SSH connection refused error message to appear. With another way of saying it, the error occurs if multiple droplets are using the same IP address.

Are you looking for a solution? Our technical support team will help you to resolve it.