ssh_exchange_identification: Connection closed by remote host

noticed in system log:

Mar 16 11:39:24 hosting pop3d: Mar 16 11:39:24 hosting pop3d-ssl: Mar 16 11:39:24 hosting sshd[8243]: fatal: /var/empty must be owned by root and not group or world-writable.

i opened up Disk Utility and “Fixed Permissions” on the drive and voila… i’m able to connect to the box via SSH.