Re: Network accessibility problem

[chuck gelm <chuck@gelm.net>]

gerardo juarez-mondragon wrote:

>I have a Fedora Core 2 server running in a
>network behind a firewall. I need access to ports
>22 and 80 from outside but the firewall
>administration is not under my control. I have
>requested this access to be opened and the
>administrator says it is already open, yet I
>still cannot access it from outside.
>
>I have run a few tests and this is what I found:
>
>(Filtering tables are flushed with iptables -F,
>on the server, prior to the tests)
>
>I can ping to/from it from/to any place, whether
>it is inside or outside the office.
>
>I can ssh to it from any place *inside*, but not
> from outside. A ssh -v from a computer outside
>succeeds up to the "entering event loop" message
>(which means it has presumably connected but the
>dialog does not proceed beyond this point).
>Viceversa, attempting a ssh session past the
>firewall results in an instantaneous 'Connection
>refused' message. The same connection from
>another computer succeeds, proving a ssh server
>was indeed running at the other end.
>
>telneting to port 80 produces this result:
>
>Trying 207.284.xxx.yyy...
>Connected to 207.248.xxx.yyy.
>Escape character is '^]'.
>
>when attempted from the (outside) ip authorized
>to access the computer. Any other ip just gets to
>the 'Trying...' line. This is correct and what
>should be happening, yet a browser reports
>'request sent' and proceeds no further when
>pointed to the address. (The Apache installation
>index page should be displayed).
>
>The administrator argues that some 'service'
>within my server is blocking packets, but I don't
>know that SSH can be configured to restrict
>access to specific ip segments. It can restrict
>access to *accounts*. Nor that there is such a
>service, except the firewall, whose tables I have
>already flushed.
>
>Am I missing something? What other tests do you
>suggest?
>
>Thanks,
>Gerardo
>  
>

Dear Gerardo:

 You mention only trying one port (ssh:22) from the 'outside'
and that the ssh attempt failed.

 You did not mention that the 'Fedora Core 2 server" (FC2S)
has a routeable IP address.  What ports of the FC2S are
reachable from the outside?

HTH, Chuck