Bug#744713: general: cannot connect to server from external network
Package: general
Severity: important
Dear Maintainer,
-- System Information:
Debian Release: 7.4
APT prefers stable-updates
APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Kernel: Linux 3.2.0-4-amd64 (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
I'll do my best to describe the problem that I'm having and all of the steps I've taken in diagnosing it.
I have a spare PC that I recently setup as a server running debian 7.4.0 amd64 without a GUI. I have years
of experience with Ubuntu based distros but this is my first time using debian. I ran the setup using the
netinst installer. I installed the web server, sql server (psql), and ssh tasks from tasksel. I configured
the networking manually for static IPs on two adapters - one on my "main" network (wifi - 192.168.42.x) and
one on a wired network that talks back to my desktop PC via gigabit ethernet (10.42.x.x).
I can connect to the server (both ssh & http) from any of my pcs using the 192.168.42.x IP address.
I have my wifi router setup to forward ports 22 and 80 to this computer. When I try to connect to it via
my external IP, a connection is never made ... it just "hangs" there waiting for it to connect. Eventually
the attempt times out.
I setup a VM on my desktop PC using VirtualBox and installed 7.4.0 on it to see if maybe there was perhaps
something wrong with my system. Installed the same packages via tasksel and configured networking. Again
I can connect from the internal network, but not from an external network.
To rule out a problem with my router, I redirected ports 22 and 80 to my desktop PC running Xubuntu 14.04
beta and they worked perfectly fine. I contacted a friend of mine who runs debian on his main PC hoping
he might be able to offer some assistance (Dick Thomas - xpd259@gmail.com). He configured a VM on his PC
and set up SSH on it. He experienced the same problem where you're unable to connect from an outside
network.
On his suggestion, I setup another VM and this time installed the latest Testing (Jessie) version. I was
unable to install packages via tasksel because it crashed on every attempt, but I did install ssh and
apache2 via aptitude and then pointed my router to this new VM. I had no problems connecting to the
testing VM like I did with the current stable install.
I've checked iptables, hosts.allow, and hosts.deny and found nothing wrong with any of them. I'm at a loss
for what the problem is, as is my friend Dick.
Please contact me and/or Dick regarding this problem with any questions or for any assistance we may be
able to provide in finding a solution to the problem.
Thanks!
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