How To Solve Connection attempt failed with "EAI_NONAME - Neither Nodename Nor Servname Provided, Or Not Known

If you have ever tried to import a file into FileZilla from your domain host only to find that using the supplied settings produced the,

Connection-attempt-failed-with-EAI_NONAME---Neither-nodename-nor-servname-provided-or-not-known". 

error, you are in luck. I am going to show you a quick way to take care of this issue.

When you are using an FTP client to connect to your site, you typically have a setup that looks something like this. (Note - if you are using FileZilla, your screen looks EXACTLY like this, since this is the ftp client I am using here.)

Notice the area I have highlighted in Yellow. This is the problem child in this scenario. Although your hosting company may have stated that you should use ftp.YourWebsite.com, that is often NOT the correct thing for you to use to gain remote ftp access to your site. The error means that the program cannot resolve the dns entry for your site. Instead of using ftp.YourWebsite.com, you need to replace the host ftp.YourWebsite.com with your IP Address. Sometimes, the issue can also be resolved by simply removing ftp from the host name so that ftp.YourWebsite.com becomes just YourWebsite.com. However, depending on how your domains are set up this will not help you. For example, if you have a hosting account that allows you to host multiple domains from one site, then your sites are typically branched off of your main website

If you are using cPanel, you can easily find your IP Address in the Server Information area of your cPanel. If you are using version 70.0.57 of cPanel, you can scroll to the bottom left of your screen and select Server Information.

Click there, copy the IP Address from that screen and paste it into the host area of FileZilla or your preferred FTP client. Click OK or Save and you should now be able to access your site!

Solution 1:
First, try removing the ftp. from the host name. For example, if you have ftp.YourWebsite.com as the host name, try changing it to YourWebsite.com. If this does not work, move on to Solution 2.

Solution 2:
Replace your host name ftp.YourWebsite.com with the actual IP Address for your site. If you are using cPanel, this information can be found in the Server Information area.