Question

PuTTY gives "Network error: Software caused connection abort" and closes....why?

Posted March 1, 2015 139.9k views

I want to use PuTTY with username and password instead of ssh keys.

I edited /etc/ssh/sshd_config and uncommented ’#PasswordAuthentication yes ’

Then I restarted ssh with ‘service ssh restart’

But, when I try and use PuTTY to log into server PuTTY does not connect and gives the “Network error: Software caused connection abort” message.

What am I screwing up?

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  • sierracircle March 1, 2015
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    does putty have a way to add options? Like: ssh -v youruser@yourdomain.com

    adding the -v will give you some more output which can help figure out what is going on.

    Also, be sure to check permissions on your .ssh folder for your user:

    chmod go-wrx ~
chmod 700 ~/.ssh
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

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7 answers
ryanpq June 24, 2016

If you are continually encountering this issue I would recommend attempting to log into the console in the control panel. If you have a password and shell set for your user you will be able to log in there as it does not depend on your ssh service. I would then recommend checking /var/log/auth.log and the other log files in /var/log for your ssh login attempts and you should find more information on why they failed.

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anonnomous October 8, 2017

Had the same trying to connect via putty to a netapp. what worked for me was settings a different new ip on the nic of the netapp, and then setting the old correct ip on that same nic again.

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hostingride June 20, 2019

I had this problem, the problem was the router. Configure Putty to send “Keepalives”. This solution works for me: i had used keep alive time.
with this solution https://www.hostingride.in/content/solved-network-error-software-caused-connection-abort-winscp-error-putty-keepalives

but last i used url or official winscp website and it;s worked for me
https://winscp.net/eng/docs/message_software_caused_connection_abort

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craciunbogdanm July 25, 2016

Hi! I am having the same problem. I can acces my droplet via “Console Acces” inside my browser, but not via Putty. I have tried both user/pass and public/private key. I get the same “Network error: Software caused connection abort”.

*I am using Windows 10

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  • hiteshblogtuts October 23, 2016

    Same Problem here also. Seems that its the Problem of windows OS. Tried from different machine and it works there. However, the Putty and Filezilla/ Cyberduck shows the error on my PC.
    Tried formatting the whole PC and install fresh windows 10 with no luck.

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archergod November 13, 2017

Does anyone find a good answer on this?

I am having same issue, but as in other forums I get it temporarily resolved by resetting my Win 10’s DNS cache using ipconfig /flushdns etc. But it is not a permanent solution and reappear after 1-2 days of work.

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RodrigoCS February 9, 2018

Hello guys,

I am having this problem (Network error: Software caused connection abort) when I try to access an SFTP user that I create. https://screenshot.net/pt/v67yef9

When I created the user, he accessed normally. However, it accessed all the system folders, but I wanted your access to be only from the /var/proddigital.com.br/wp-content folder

So I followed the article below and created a group, restricted access to this folder /var/proddigital.com.br/wp-content and then entered the user into that group.

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/questions/how-do-i-restrict-a-user-to-a-specific-directory?answer=25559

After that, I can no longer log in with this user. It shows me the message “Network error: Software caused connection abort”.

I run the command: cat/etc/passwd (https://screenshot.net/pt/842lnf5) and it shows me that the folder path for the user to reach the /wp-content folder is “/home/tagdiv-alin/proddigital.com/wp-content ”, but I tried to access this path with the root user and it does not work.

In fact, inside the /home/tagdiv-alin folder there is no shortcut folder for /proddigital.com.br (https://screenshot.net/pt/m6ej7fw) as it has in the / root folder (https://screenshot.net/pt/o674kfm).

So I figured that inside the /home/tagdiv-alin folder there should also be a shortcut folder for /proddigital.com.br, which is why it is failing to try to login with the user. Am I right?

If so, then how do I create this shortcut folder?

If not, then what could be the problem?

The following is also the authentication error log (/var/log/auth.log): https://screenshot.net/pt/z67ykf0

The following is also the syslog error log (/ var / log / syslog): https://screenshot.net/pt/0jrewud

I hope this information helps you identify the problem.

Thanks for the help.
Rodrigo Carlos

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naggappan February 15, 2018

This may even happen if there is IP conflict in the network. Try to turn of the network service in the machine by manually loggingin to that eaither via console or direct keyboard then stop the network service.

Now after that try to ping the same IP there may be some loss but still if ping works then for sure it is having IP conflict

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