Here's a little checklist I go through to debug: More often than not its a simple thing, try temporarily disabling your firewall or security for a test. then put it back. just so you can figure out what area or narrow down the possibilities here. Internet security's probably a good first start.
Do you have access to your port configuration on your gateway or network? Depends on carrier but usually accessible from 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1 some 127.0.0.1, type that into your browser and tell me if you found your gateway.
I've had this issue, it's also been an array of different issues that have caused this for me,
- If connecting to host or server closely check instructions on Username/Password/Settings — Typing in incorrect credentials and settings have been my number one reason, and the format in which I do that with add-on domains in particular
- Security/firewalls
- Router or port configs
I believe last time I fixed it with allowing the FTP port specified in one case then opening an ftp port that was closed in my router configuration. It wasn't my firewall that time, but in the past I've seen that too.
Perhaps white list your IP that you are attempting to connect to --
which it should say after you attempt to connect in the activity log, it should read it back as 'Connecting to... xxx.xxx.xx.xxx:21 usually for FTP' but many carriers are moving away from the standard FTP port.
it's IP address instead of domain - check the log, and make sure that
on the other side of that connection (perhaps a hosting site) that
you dont have security settings that are accidentally blocking your
client machine ip with a "block all but" or "whitelist only these
specific ips" in your configuration, if they are then add your IP to
the appropriate whitelist or change your settings to what you believe
is most suitable for your security needs.
Also, if you have a way to configure such things on your host, I would recommend whitelisting your client PC IP (if possible) depends on your host and/or what you're connecting to and if you almost always connect from that machine or vm.
Make sure you have the correct settings for connecting, I've misconstrued my settings before and gotten this response, I wasn't appropriately connecting to my subdomain/add-on domain properly. some hosts require ftp://[email protected], port number (usually 21, no always, in fact, GoDaddy I dont think even requires a port number but it'll automatically add the standard port config number so check your hosts' ftp settings, your ftp user credentials (even add or change them if needed so you KNOW you have them correct, and then check the format for add-on domains if thats what you're trying to do otherwise ftp://yourdomainname.com in Host then those Creds in Username and Password and you should be set, or with subdomain it'll often prompt for password when set to normal if you use Site Manager to add sites
I'll update shortly once I fix mine to let you know what it is that fixed mine. Do you need any special connection like SFTP or FTPS/SSH — also depending on provider you may not be able to connect to it via SSH like A2 Hosting even though it allows for Node.js and other capabilities that run together with ded. access.
If you can give me a bit more info I could probably tell you exact solutions, but for now, I know that these are something you should absolutely check first, especially the way you're trying to login, I've messed that up more thinking I'm doing it correctly then messing it up just slightly. Some hosts are more picky than others.