Server host banning SmartFTP use

I am aware of at least one hosting service that has informed their clients that they need to restrict the use of SmartFTP because it is leaving many open connections which will not close and are using up CPU until the host kills them. Has anyone heard of this issue? Is it something the users can control in their configuration and use? Or is it a bug with SmartFTP? Or are the host providers nuts?

Hi,

my host will kill any unused connection after a special time of inactivity i.e. 15min. So - in my opinion - it's not a problem of SmartFTP, but a host problem.

Greets....

An update on this, is that it is not so much hanging connections, but rather additional Proftpd processes that are created and these are not being terminated. There are similar reports (not necessarily related to SmartFTP) on Cpanel forum, that a lot of these processes are being created and using up CPU cycles.

It maybe that there is some form of FTP hacking going on, but nothing seems definite yet. The host action I feel is a bit premature, but obviously something does have to happen when server resources are compromised. I just wonder if SmartFTP is the real culprit or not.

Hi,

my host will kill any unused connection after a special time of inactivity i.e. 15min. So - in my opinion - it's not a problem of SmartFTP, but a host problem.

Greets....

Except a host with thousands of resellers has a lot of leverage since those accounts can't easily just 'up and move', yet it's a little awkward trying to police the software the actual end-user is using to get to manage their website's files.

Since I don't use SmartFTP, I came here to see if anyone with more intimate knowlege of the way it works could figure out what might be going on to cause the "apparent" behavior.

ReliableSol wondered if it could be some form of FTP hacking. That would be interesting, as there has been a number of DDOS attempts in the past 6 weeks against several notable hosting companies.