I've just installed Slackware 7 on a box and am trying to configure it for reasonable security (hence the installation of openssh). It's taken me a good bit of time just to get the correct libraries in place, ssl installed, and ssh itself installed. I've gotten to the point where I've generated a public key and individual keys for two users (me and my roomate). The daemon is running and still the connections are refused by my system. I'm fairly sure I have everything installed correctly (including a bug listed for Slack on the openssh website)and the configuration seems to be the problem. I don't care if it's configured using generated keys or password authentication. The whole idea of this is just so I can ssh in from work and mess around with the box for learning purposes. I've cut all services except for telnet in the inetd.conf file also.

I don't know enough to know what to even ask on this one. I've read through the documentation but a good bit of it is above my head. Since the question of 'how do I fix this' is so broad, I'd appreciate it if anyone can point me to a good openssh configuration guide, suggest a few things I could check, or anything you think I would find helpful.

I'd even be willing to let someone telnet in to my box and see if he sees the problem. My box is running strictly for learning purposes and I don't care if I end up having to reinstall or whatever. Anyone have any suggestions??
Thanks for your help.

jhoward

check yer firewall

--ArmedGeek

Hi there,

You need to figure out whether the problem is with sshd or whether its something else, like a firewall. Bear in mind that ssh should allow you to get a login prompt with no configuration at all. If you just install it and its running, you should get a login prompt when you ssh to the box just like with telnet.

So, question 1 is whether you can get this login prompt if you ssh to the box and don't have anything set up.

One way you should be able to tell if its a network or ssh issue is to ssh to the box from itself - e.g. log onto myserver and type "ssh myserver". This will often connect when a firewall is blocking connections from other sources.

Two other things to try :
1. When you do an ssh, use the -vvv flag (e.g. ssh -vvv myserver). You can post the output here if its not clear.
2. Look in /var/log/messages on the server you are connecting to. If something is refusing a connection, it will often give a clue why in this file (could be another similar file).