Please help me with my rectal/cranial inversion.

I am using Mandrake 10 - its a new/clean installation. I made sure the firewall is turned off. FTP and Open SSH servers are turned on.

I can connect to a user account through FTP (but not root) so the connection seems ok.

When I try to connect with SSH, the connection always closes without ever asking for a user name or password.

My client is an XP machine. I have tried putty, OpenSSH, FiSSH, and TTSSH.

I guess these things are too easy for me to figure them out, because I have had no progress in getting any of then to connect.

Also, is there a way to configure Mandrake so you can FTP via root? Can you SSH via root?

Thnx in advance

It's best not to open connections for root, instead, connect via ssh as your username then "su" to root. Transfer files through ssh using the "scp" command.
edit: As to your server, check the settings in /etc/ssh/sshd_config and check that sshd is running.

Well, kool, thnx, I looked through sshd_config though and nothing jumped out at me.

I did a ps -C and found a PID for sshd, so it should be running right?

I know it something friking simple which is why its really agrivating me.