I'm running a http and ftp server on my virtual private network. I can access both from withing the network. can't however see the server on the internet.
here's a schematic for ya...
|modem|--|netgear router|----------|192.168.1.* hosts|
portforwarding is on for 80 and 21 to the linux server

I've been toying with this for about a month now with no luck
I know i'm not giving much information... but i just have no clue what i'm doing wrong?

Firstly it's not a VPN. VPN is where you have two private networks sharing local resources via a public network.

Local IP Range <--VPN Router / Server--> (Internet) <--VPN Router / Server--> Local IP Range

If you have nothing else running on the server and want to make both web and ftp available to Public
place the server in the DMZ Zone. This will allow all ports access from the net so only do this if you have nothing else
that you want to run privately.
The second thing is make sure you set up the port forwarding correctly in the router. Simple mistakes like typos can
make all the difference. Most routers will automatically deal with UDP and TCP so if you read anything about that
just ignore it.

Hope that helps.

G

putting it in the dmz didn't work... port forwarding is setup correctly i'm sure of it.

It sounds like there could be a problem with the router.
Can you port forward successfully to any machine on your local network?

G.