[aaronkupen]

I recently installed SSH onto my debian etch system, but no one is actually able to use it to go on my system.

I have no idea where to start to fix this problem. I'm using kernel 2.6 if that helps.

[Qiranworms]

Is sshd running?

Try

ps -A | grep sshd

to see if it is. (gotta start with the obvious)

[aaronkupen]

When i enter that I get

"3890 ? 00:00:00 sshd"

I don't know what that means, but I was able to use SSH to access a friend's computer. It just seems like no one can get on mine.

[Qiranworms]

It means the process is running, which is what you want. Okay, that means the problem lies elsewhere. I don't really know too much about this sort of thing, but the next thing I'd try (maybe someone else who knows more about SSH will post) would be to determine whether it's your user/ssh configuration, or a more network-related issue.

Try

ssh yourusername@127.0.0.1

on the computer that won't let others connect to it. That's your home IP address, so you're SSHing into the computer your on. Pretty useless in general, but this is for testing purposes. Report back whether that works.

Question: Are you using a NAT device (such as a router) of a sorts?

[aaronkupen]

Yah it worked, I'm using a linksys router.

[Qiranworms]

Okay. I'm guessing you haven't set up your router for this then. You need to set up port forwarding.

I can't give you specific instructions, since I don't have a Linksys router, but go into the configuration page, you should be able to figure out where everything is.

SSH generally uses port 22. Protocol is TCP. Use your internal network (192.168.x.x) IP address of the computer running SSH. Be sure to give the people who need to connect to your computer via SSH your external IP address.

edit: http://www.portforward.com/ if setting up port forwarding for your specific router turns out not-so-obvious. Chances are your router will be on their list.

edit 2: Just looked through that site. Excellent. All you have to do is go to the list of routers, click your router model #, click SSH, and it'll go through the steps. Just follow those.

[aaronkupen]

Arg, I did that. That's how it has been, but still no one can get on my computer.

[Qiranworms]

At this point I'm really not sure what Debian does with the various configuration files I'd check now to troubleshoot; I'm a Gentoo user.

See if any Debian people can respond. Sorry.


You *could* also try reinstalling sshd (presumedly with apt-get)...

[macdude425]

By default, SSHD listens on port 22 on Debian, and it is kept open by iptables. It has been this way as long as I can remember.

That means that there is either a router problem, or if it is hooked up to a cable or DSL modem (which I think yours is) then that could also be blocking incoming traffic on port 22.