Tramp on OSX issues

[Frank Sonnemans]

I have been having a lot of trouble with Tramp on osx and would
appreciate some pointers to get around these issues:

1. I would like to use scp/ssh for more secure communication. However
   logging into a remote site does not work (timeout after 60
   seconds). I wonder if Tramp is not trying rsh which is disabled on
   the remote server. Setting the default method to SCP or SSH does
   not help.

2. I can edit remotely with ftp. However if I set the default to ftp
   and change the mode of a file, tramp tries to open the file after
   the chmod command resulting in an inevitable error. The following
   is a typical ftp log after a change mode command on a text file:

ftp> chmod 444 /home/webmaster/eapro/dropdownmenu.html
200 CHMOD command successful.
ftp> cd /home/webmaster/eapro/dropdownmenu.html
550 /home/webmaster/eapro/dropdownmenu.html: Not a directory.
cd /home/webmaster/eapro/dropdownmenu.html
ftp> 550 /home/webmaster/eapro/dropdownmenu.html: Not a directory.

Is this an osx related bug or am I doing something wrong here?

Regards,

Frank