user password not accepted when using SSH to a remote linux box
 

Hi,

I'm having a problem logging into linux machine via ssh. In short, the password is not accepted by the system and then after 5 attempts drops my connection. I've read a similar post titled "root password isn working". My problem is not with root login (this works OK) but with another user called "fred".
using ssh I'm prompted for the username (I use "fred") then get prompted for password. The password i use doesn't get me in. Just wondering if it's some thing like a setting in ther sshd_config file???
Here's what's intersting; as a local user username "fred" has password "fred". When I login as "fred" using telnet, there's no password and as explained, for SSH who no's.

I think the thread mentioned before puts me on the right track but I'm wondering 2 things;
1) why there appears to be 3 diferent passwords for the same user.
2) if there's any other sshd_config paramters I needs to look at?

Anyhow if some SSH guru can explain it would be very much appreciated.

regards
emeak

This question is far too fuzzy to get answered, I'm sorry..

What distribution are you using? What version of it? Is it a plain new install? or has it been customized?

On most systems, PAM (The Pluggable Authentication Module) should kick in on any login, be it local, telnet or ssh.

Depending on your distro, there are log files that can tell you why access has not been granted.

Do you know the password for the user fred?

because it seems you dont

best thing to do is get whoever admins the server to reset the password for you.