I had a difficult time getting Blogger.com to publish my blog to my host using SFTP. I was receiving the following error message:

"005 Unable to connect to SFTP server: Session.connect: java.net.SocketTimeoutException: Read timed out".

Oddly I was able to connect using my own SFTP client. When I went to run SSHD in debug mode to see if I could find any hints of the problem I had to stop the normal SSHD and XINETD from running. I ran SSHD in debug mode and Blogger.com published without any problem. So I started SSHD and XINETD again and Blogger.com published without any problem too!

I guess the Microsoft Windows method of solving problems (i.e. turn off the car, roll up the windows, start the car again) works in Linux sometimes too.

From the sequence of events, it sounds like sshd wasn't running when you started. Is it set to auto-start on boot? Did it fail in startup for some reason (check your logs). Unlike Windows, you can always get the root cause in Linux if you're willing to work on it. You have everything the software developer has (source code and compiler).

Macemoneta - Thanks for the help. I think sshd had to have been running because otherwise I wouldn't have been able to SFTP to the host from my own SFTP client. It is set to autostart on boot. When I went to shutdown sshd the control panel indicated that it was running. I figured out how to view the log but that was only after I decided to restart the sshd. Anyway it works now!