FTP gone Slow

[Bill Moran]

Gavin Kenny wrote:
> Hi Guys,
> 
> I have been running FBSD4.4 quite happily for a while
> now and I have recently got this problem.
> 
> When I FTP into my box it connects fine but then takes
> ages before I get a login prompt.
> 
> It never used to do this, the login prompt used to be
> instantaneous.
> 
> Any ideas what I have done to mess this up?

Have you done any diagnostic testing at all?  I know you didn't
do any searching, as this is discussed on this list alone about
every two weeks and you would have found it if you'd searched
google.

My first guess would be that your reverse DNS broke at some point.
Generally what happens, is that the FTP daemon is waiting for an
RDNS request to return so it has a hostname to put in the logs.  If
the RDNS is broken, it waits until timeout (30 sec is the norm I
believe) before logging you in.

Easy way to find out if this is the problem is the host command.
host 55.55.55.55
(substitute your IP address for 55.55.55.55)
If you don't get a hostname, this is likely to be the problem.

-- 
Bill Moran
Potential Technologies
http://www.potentialtech.com