I have been trying to setup a vpn for my ipad all weekend long. I believe i have set it up right after all the tutorials I have read. The problem is, when I try and connect, I am told the server is not responding. I also tried on my Ubuntu box, same problem. I did an nmap on my server on port 1723. This told me the port was closed. I put in my /etc/iptables.conf and no luck. Now I am asking for help. I am running Debian, have reboot, and made sure pptpd is running. Thanks for the help. My VPS provider (Sshvm.com) is running SolusVM.

Try running 'sudo ss -lnp' on the server. Do you see any process listening on that port?

Running

as a test what happens if you clear the firewall rules or shut down the firewall entirely can you connect then? Also make sure the VPS providor isn't blocking any ports into their data center.

I contacted my VPS provider and they told me that there is no firewall in front of my VPS and that they do not block any ports. Also, not sure what firewall you are talking about, either the non-existent one or iptables. If iptables is a firewall I do not know how to disable it.

Yes IPtables. just clearing all the rules should disable it or disable the IPtables service. You can see what rules all ready exist, maybe you have a higher priority rule over riding the accept rule you set up.

iptables --list

will show you all the rules

iptables --flush

should clear all the rules out.

You should also be able to turn the iptables service off in Debian

/etc/init.d/iptables stop

Flushed iptables. No luck.
no such file or directory.

This is very odd. The port isn't getting blocked by your 3G provider or ISP if on WiFi is it? Also have you ensured the GRE protocol can get through too?

From a PC can you try running nmap against your VPS and seeing what it reports for open ports and services that it detects are running?

1. Not sure how to check GRE
2. nmap says port 1723 is closed with service pptpd
3. port 1723 is not blocked by ISP

Maybe uninstall IPTables, at least for testing....?

First: WOW this is getting ridiculous and thank you soo much for your help.

I removed iptables - didn't work
Reinstalled iptables - still didn't work

Sorry trying to think about what could be done to troubleshoot it. Obviously from the scan the port is seen as closed. But at this juncture I have to say I don't think it is a firewall running on your VPS, but I'm at a loss as to what it could be.

I have made progress. Now, port 1723 is open, only problem is I cannot connect (Thread here: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...46#post4677646)
To do this, I enabled PPP under my VPS management client, reinstalled to CENTOS 5, and followed this guide: http://blog.doylenet.net/?p=17.