reload vsftp service

Is there a easy-to-use graphical tool (or a simple and direct set of command line instructions) that will help me reload services on Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES version 3?

VSFTPD keeps dying on my business server - seemingly at random, with message "dead but subsys locked"

VSFTPD starts and restarts just fine (although I'm not exactly sure of the difference between the two options) and may work for one or two sessions - but sometimes it dies before an ftp session is even initiated.

I stopped gssftp and tftp to see if there was a conflict, but it made no difference.

I know enough to log in and restart a service using the graphical destop, but that is the extent of my linux administration skills. (Other than knowing enough not to "mess" with it)

We recently lost our exchange server and 5 client pc's to a major virus attack - this may have affected linux, but I have no way to tell....

Many Thanks.
Mike

How are you running vsftpd? As a daemon or under xinetd?

My apologies for slow repsonse - haven't used a forum before, and mistakenly thought I would get email notification of postings.

I understand that there is a difference in stand alone services and in daemons running under Xinetd, but do not know how to tell what's going on.

I suspect the problem may be solved with a reload of the ftp service and with making it run standalone.

Regards,
Mike