I've installed proftpd on my droplet, successfully started it, and tried to access it remotely thru:
>ftp 198.199.71.29
and get
ftp: connection timed out

nmap shows:
Starting Nmap 6.00 ( http://nmap.org ) at 2013-06-11 15:43 UTC
Nmap scan report for admin.lakesentry.net (198.199.71.29)
Host is up (0.00060s latency).
Not shown: 997 closed ports
PORT STATE SERVICE
21/tcp open ftp
22/tcp open ssh
3690/tcp open svn

Initially I told it to use inetd vs. standalone, but changed that later in the config file after documentation directed standalone…So proftpd.conf shows:

/etc/proftpd/proftpd.conf – This is a basic ProFTPD configuration file.

To really apply changes, reload proftpd after modifications, if

it runs in daemon mode. It is not required in inetd/xinetd mode.

Includes DSO modules

Include /etc/proftpd/modules.conf

Set off to disable IPv6 support which is annoying on IPv4 only boxes.

UseIPv6 on

If set on you can experience a longer connection delay in many cases.

IdentLookups off

ServerName “http://198.199.71.29” ServerType standalone DeferWelcome off

MultilineRFC2228 on DefaultServer on ShowSymlinks on

TimeoutNoTransfer 600 TimeoutStalled 600 TimeoutIdle 1200

DisplayLogin welcome.msg DisplayChdir .message true ListOptions “-l”

DenyFilter *.*/

Use this to jail all users in their homes

DefaultRoot /var/ftpshare

Users require a valid shell listed in /etc/shells to login.

Use this directive to release that constrain.

RequireValidShell off

Port 21 is the standard FTP port.

Port 21

In some cases you have to specify passive ports range to by-pass

firewall limitations. Ephemeral ports can be used for that, but

feel free to use a more narrow range.

PassivePorts 49152 65534

If your host was NATted, this option is useful in order to

allow passive tranfers to work. You have to use your public

address and opening the passive ports used on your firewall as well.

#MasqueradeAddress 1.2.3.4

This is useful for masquerading address with dynamic IPs:

refresh any configured MasqueradeAddress directives every 8 hours

DynMasqRefresh 28800

To prevent DoS attacks, set the maximum number of child processes

to 30. If you need to allow more than 30 concurrent connections

at once, simply increase this value. Note that this ONLY works

in standalone mode, in inetd mode you should use an inetd server

that allows you to limit maximum number of processes per service

(such as xinetd)

MaxInstances 30

Set the user and group that the server normally runs at.

User ##### Group #####

Umask 022 is a good standard umask to prevent new files and dirs

(second parm) from being group and world writable.

Umask 022 022

Normally, we want files to be overwriteable.

AllowOverwrite on

Uncomment this if you are using NIS or LDAP via NSS to retrieve passwords:

PersistentPasswd off

This is required to use both PAM-based authentication and local passwords

AuthOrder mod_auth_pam.c* mod_auth_unix.c

Be warned: use of this directive impacts CPU average load!

Uncomment this if you like to see progress and transfer rate with ftpwho

in downloads. That is not needed for uploads rates.

UseSendFile off

TransferLog /var/log/proftpd/xferlog SystemLog /var/log/proftpd/proftpd.log

Logging onto /var/log/lastlog is enabled but set to off by default

#UseLastlog on

In order to keep log file dates consistent after chroot, use timezone info

from /etc/localtime. If this is not set, and proftpd is configured to

chroot (e.g. DefaultRoot or ), it will use the non-daylight

savings timezone regardless of whether DST is in effect.

#SetEnv TZ :/etc/localtime

QuotaEngine off

Ratios off

Delay engine reduces impact of the so-called Timing Attack described in

http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/11430/discuss

It is on by default.

DelayEngine on

ControlsEngine off ControlsMaxClients 2 ControlsLog /var/log/proftpd/controls.log ControlsInterval 5 ControlsSocket /var/run/proftpd/proftpd.sock

AdminControlsEngine off

Alternative authentication frameworks

#Include /etc/proftpd/ldap.conf #Include /etc/proftpd/sql.conf

This is used for FTPS connections

#Include /etc/proftpd/tls.conf

Useful to keep VirtualHost/VirtualRoot directives separated

#Include /etc/proftpd/virtuals.conf

A basic anonymous configuration, no upload directories.

User ftp

Group nogroup

# We want clients to be able to login with “anonymous” as well as “ftp”

UserAlias anonymous ftp

# Cosmetic changes, all files belongs to ftp user

DirFakeUser on ftp

DirFakeGroup on ftp

RequireValidShell off

# Limit the maximum number of anonymous logins

MaxClients 10

# We want ‘welcome.msg’ displayed at login, and ‘.message’ displayed

# in each newly chdired directory.

DisplayLogin welcome.msg

DisplayChdir .message

# Limit WRITE everywhere in the anonymous chroot

DenyAll

# Uncomment this if you’re brave.

# # Umask 022 is a good standard umask to prevent new files and dirs

# # (second parm) from being group and world writable.

# Umask 022 022

# DenyAll

# AllowAll

Include other custom configuration files

Include /etc/proftpd/conf.d/

Help?