Unable to connect to website using FTP software

Question

I recently made this post over on the WinSCP forums and was encouraged to post here to try and solve the issue, so this is a copy and paste of an existing thread:

A a few days ago I updated a theme on my WordPress website (http://mmgaming.net/) and now trying to access it results in a syntax error. This was the same for trying to log in to the admin section. So I learn that to solve this, I need to access the site using FTP.

First I tried FileZilla on my work Mac, but was repeatedly getting a 510 Mismatch error every time I tried to log-in. Some checking around online (https://forum.filezilla-project.org/viewtopic.php?t=35311) suggests that this is an issue with Firewalls and not using "Active Mode" on FileZilla (something I didn't know how to set up).

So now I've switched to my home PC and am trying to use WinSCP, as I was hoping it was just my work network that was the problem. First I was getting a time out issue of:

Timeout detected. (control connection) 

So then I found a thread saying to turn on Active Mode and to try and and extend the amount of time that it takes to connect. So I unchecked Passive Mode and changed the server response timeout to 30 seconds. This then resulted in a new error:

A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond.

I am at a complete loss and have no idea what to do or try next. Any help would be massively appreciated. Thanks in advance!

(P.s. I've seen a few posts here posting Logs and so-on, but I don't actually know where to find those/how to get them, so if those would be useful please let me know how to get them.)

Answer 1

to solve this, I need to access the site using FTP.

This might be true, but websites do not automatically have FTP access. FTP is a separate service that the hosting provider needs to have set up – with accounts independent from your website, and the server address quite possibly different from the website's name.

So while most "shared web hosting" companies do provide FTP access automatically (and/or SFTP, more recently), it is not guaranteed to be there; and even if it is there, you might be connecting to the wrong server or using the wrong credentials.

And in fact if the WordPress installation was done by the hosting company, then it's more likely that you won't have direct access to the files at all. (In this case, actually, isn't the company supposed to be fixing such problems as well?)

I'm moderately certain that it's hosted by WordPress

No; it uses the WordPress software but is not hosted through WordPress.com – it is a custom installation on some other company's servers. (Signs point to "UK Webhosting Ltd" and/or "Paragon Internet Group Ltd".)

I was just trying to connect directly to the website with my Admin login details.

That is unlikely to work.

If you installed WordPress on your own, then its accounts are completely independent from FTP accounts or other kinds of "control panel" accounts.

If WordPress was installed by the hosting company – if you're on some kind of "WordPress and nothing else" plan – then there's a slight chance they'll be identical... but it's far more likely that you don't actually have FTP access whatsoever.