this is a long story, and I'm desperate so please, listen.

It starts off when I get a used box and decide to make a linux server. I put Debian (woody) on it with nothing except the base, apache, php4, etherconf, wu-ftpd, and sshd. It's all stock along with an apt-get upgrade, and all configured correctly to my knowledge. Here is where the problem starts.

Just to paint a picture, my network at this point looks like this

2 wireless XP machines, 1wired debian -> Netgear MR814 -> SBC yahoo DSL.(dynamic ip)

I own a domain, something.net, which through zoneedit and zoneclient.py I point to my WAN IP. At the router I forward ports 21,22,80 to the ip of the debian box.


I decide to test out my server processes from my XP machines. They work fine as long as I use the IP address of the debian box, but if I try to ftp, or ssh to something.net or www.something.net I get 'unknown error', or 'connection timed out'errors. The funny part is that if I http to something.net or www.something.net I can see my web root just fine, along with a phpinfo file. Just to be sure it wasn't linux, I put up a quick ftp server on my laptop and forwarded the port 21 to it. No luck. I can connect via IP, but not by my domain name.

So I tried from work, and the same thing! www works fine, but no ssh or ftp.
So I took the router out of the equation. set my xp laptops automatic PPPoE settings, updated my zoneedit zone and presto! I can now use ftp via something.net! This is important because it proves that SBC isn't blocking the ports.

I read up on my router, turns out there are a lot of problems with it, so I adjusted the topology as such:

2 wireless XP machines ---------------\
Netgear MR814
|
1 linux Debian box -------------Linksys BEFSR41
|
SBC Yahoo DSL

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I set up the linksys just as before, with it providing dhcp to the 2 windows machines and gateway to all with the netgear just functioning as an access point. Still SAME RESULTS!

At this point I'm desperate. I can't serve ftp or ssh, but at least I can have http? This is really irritating.

I'll take any suggestions at this point. Except don't tell me to powercycle anything.. it's been done.

Hav you checked our router config to see if only certain ports are being allowd through it? Have you got any firewall rules on the server itself?

It's a longshot but anyway...

- Do you know if Yahoo DSL allows you to host SSH or FTP servers?
If you can access the http server from outside the LAN but SSH and FTP only from within it this might be the case.

Some local ISP's around where I live do this, supposedly to stop people from sharing that Juarez dude.

I think ssh is port 22

yes, the router config is perfect. and for the server having firewall rules, I'm not that familiar with how the debian base system is, but if that was the case then I should've been able to get into the ftp server I ran on the XP machine.

try resolving the ip address of the domain, and if its not pointing to the correct ip that could be the source of the problem.

checked, it's pointing to the right domain. if it wasn't, i wouldn't be able to hit the web server


I would call SBC, but it says in their AUP that operating a server of any kind is illegal.

im talking about resolving each domain if you made one for each.

ftp.
ssh.
www.
.
etc

Because if addresses work, and domains dont, it sounds like theres no dns records for them, OR they haven't propigated fully yet.

DNS usually takes like a whole day to fourd days sometimes to fully propigate.

If that was the case then I wouldn't be able to hit the www server. it's all on www.something.net. The nameserver change is already propigated, and changes are made almost instataneously through Zoneedit.

Have you tried running the ssh and ftp services on port 80 to see if it is a service problem or restrictions made by your ISP?