Ok, when I execute ssh addressto.mysite.com, nothing happens. The cursor just sits at the beginning of the next line. Running netstat shows that there is an established connection to the server at port ssh, but nothing seems to happen. I'm running a new install of Mandrake 10. To answer the obvious question, yes sshd is running on the server, and I can connect just fine under windows. SSH under linux has never worked, although never might not be the right word with a 8 hour old install. Thanks in advance!

do you have any iptables rules running on the mandrake box?

Running iptables returns command not found, so I would say no, there are no rules preventing it. I stuck with the default security settings in the mandrake installer, if that answers any questions.

not sure of mandrake's default security setup, but it's the first thing i would check just in case ssh is blocked as an output.

btw, you have to be root to run the command:

# iptables -L

Yeah, I realized that the normal users get command not found on many things, iwconfig, ifconfig, iptables to name three. I was going to say that netstat shows the connection as established, but that's not true. I misread it before, the connection state is SYN_SENT. I'm not sure what that means, but I'm hoping it's a big red flag for someone.

hmm, it still kind of seems like a firewall problem. afaik, syn_sent means it tried to connect, and if you're not getting a response it would seem you're blocked somewhere. did you try to connect using just the IP instead of the name?

it might help if you could provide more details about your network. what are you connecting to? a webserver? a local domain? is the windows machine on the same network? are you behind a router firewall? etc.

Network setup as far as I can give you is a Dual XP/Mandrake machine connected wirelessly to a linksys WRT54G router/switch/AP, and then after that, it's into the school's network. I am however able to connect with ssh on XP, so that seems to tell me that the network is fine.

that tells you the network is fine in windows, but not necessarily in mandrake. do you have other network capability in linux: web, ping, ftp, etc.? iow, it's not your wireless connection itself that's down, is it?

Yeah, I'm actually on Mandrake right now, on wireless. I've got ping, web, ftp, full d/l speed, everything looks good, except ssh.
<edit>
Forgot to answer part of a previous post. I'm connecting to a linux server running behind a linksys router on a cable connection back home. That machine runs debian woody. I did try just the IP, no change. The windows machine is the same machine as the Mandrake machine
</edit>

could it be that mandrake is still running ipchains?? well you could check that instead of iptables (as root):

# ipchains -L

since you can connect from the very same box running windows, i can't think of anything else it would be except the output policy on mandrake. you might check the /etc/hosts.allow and hosts.deny on the debian server, although again if you can connect with the same IP and name from windows, i don't know how that would be blocking you. just to be sure, you might want to add the IP to hosts.allow and comment out anything in hosts.deny that might be causing mandrake to be blocked.

sorry, maybe someone who knows mandrake better will chime in. gl.

it seems that ipchains isn't installed either. That in itself wouldn't cause this problem, would it? Just to ensure it's not the server, i added ALL: ALL to hosts.allow, and there was nothing in hosts.deny. Not sure if it was just last night, or what, but now when I try ssh, netstat shows the connection as established. Just to make sure, the correct way to connect is simple execute ssh addressof.mysite.com , right?

ipchains/tables could be blocking it if there was a block on that port or service on the output. for example, i just loaded that as a block, and it would look something like this:
you can see that telnet (or ssh, i.e, port 23) is blocked over tcp (DROP), so i wouldn't be able to ssh out on that machine.

i take it you're not using a non-standard port on the server that you're entering in windows but forgot to add in linux, are you? (e.g., ssh addressof.mysite.com -p 555)?

you can connect with just ssh addressof.mysite.com, but if it's a different username it's probably better to add that in the command: ssh -l username addressof.mysite.com.

what do you mean by the connection is established? sounds to me more like it's not established. what netstat command are you running?

oops, replied instead of edited.

Like i say, i have neither ipchains nor iptables, or at least don't have the programs. I figured out why it was at SYN_SENT, there were internet connectivity issues back home last night, so that's why it was like that. Now running netstat --tcp returns an established state of the ssh connection. No, I'm running on the standard port. ISP blocked http, but evidently decided to leave ssh open. I'm actually using the same username, but just to make it perfectly clear for the computer, i tried ssh -l username address.to.mysite -p 22
No luck yet. Thanks for all your help though.

maybe try port 23? what port is listed in /etc/ssh/sshd_config on the server?