ssh: connect to host port 22: Connection refused with external ip address

Question

ssh: connect to host XXX.XXX.XXX.XX port 22: Connection refused

This happens when i try to connect with external ip (WAN IP Address).

I am successfully able to connect using internal ip address under lan.

What is going wrong why am I not able to connect with external ip?

Note that I have done port forwarding on router to my Internal IP Address for ssh on port 22.

When i run ps -eaf|grep sshd

root 5942 1 0 18:42 ? 00:00:00 /usr/sbin/sshd
1000 6628 6382 0 18:55 pts/0 00:00:00 grep sshd

when running ssh -VV [email protected]

OpenSSH_6.0p1 Debian-4, OpenSSL 1.0.1e 11 Feb 2013

My sshd_config file:

# Package generated configuration file
# See the sshd_config(5) manpage for details

# What ports, IPs and protocols we listen for
Port 22
# Use these options to restrict which interfaces/protocols sshd will bind to
#ListenAddress ::
#ListenAddress 0.0.0.0

Protocol 2
# HostKeys for protocol version 2
HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key
HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key
HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key
#Privilege Separation is turned on for security
UsePrivilegeSeparation yes

# Lifetime and size of ephemeral version 1 server key
KeyRegenerationInterval 3600
ServerKeyBits 768

# Logging
SyslogFacility AUTH
LogLevel INFO

# Authentication:
LoginGraceTime 120
PermitRootLogin yes
StrictModes yes

RSAAuthentication yes
PubkeyAuthentication yes
#AuthorizedKeysFile %h/.ssh/authorized_keys

# Don't read the user's ~/.rhosts and ~/.shosts files
IgnoreRhosts yes
# For this to work you will also need host keys in /etc/ssh_known_hosts
RhostsRSAAuthentication no
# similar for protocol version 2
HostbasedAuthentication no
# Uncomment if you don't trust ~/.ssh/known_hosts for RhostsRSAAuthentication
#IgnoreUserKnownHosts yes

# To enable empty passwords, change to yes (NOT RECOMMENDED)
PermitEmptyPasswords no

# Change to yes to enable challenge-response passwords (beware issues with
# some PAM modules and threads)
ChallengeResponseAuthentication no

# Change to no to disable tunnelled clear text passwords
#PasswordAuthentication yes

# Kerberos options
#KerberosAuthentication no
#KerberosGetAFSToken no
#KerberosOrLocalPasswd yes
#KerberosTicketCleanup yes

# GSSAPI options
#GSSAPIAuthentication no
#GSSAPICleanupCredentials yes

X11Forwarding yes
X11DisplayOffset 10
PrintMotd no
PrintLastLog yes
TCPKeepAlive yes
#UseLogin no

#MaxStartups 10:30:60
#Banner /etc/issue.net

# Allow client to pass locale environment variables
AcceptEnv LANG LC_*

Subsystem sftp /usr/lib/openssh/sftp-server

# Set this to 'yes' to enable PAM authentication, account processing,
# and session processing. If this is enabled, PAM authentication will
# be allowed through the ChallengeResponseAuthentication and
# PasswordAuthentication.  Depending on your PAM configuration,
# PAM authentication via ChallengeResponseAuthentication may bypass
# the setting of "PermitRootLogin without-password".
# If you just want the PAM account and session checks to run without
# PAM authentication, then enable this but set PasswordAuthentication
# and ChallengeResponseAuthentication to 'no'.
UsePAM yes

Solution

Are you sure you did the correct thing on the router (i.e. does this work with another port on an other service already)?

I'm asking because "connection refused" happens on TCP level and the reason usually is that either nobody is listening on that port on the target machine (that would be the equivalent of sshd not running) or some firewall blocking it.

Since you say it works with an address of your local network, it would appear to be the router that's either not doing the forwarding or forwards to something else.

Comments

[shakthydoss]

Here is what I did with router for port forwarding. I have teracom model and my ISP is BSNL. On port forwarding page I selected "secure shell server" and entered my internal IP address in the place provided. Click ok took me to a page where my port forwarding rules were listed. There I can find the rule that just I have created with the following properties. protocol : TCP Interal ip : my-internal-ip-address Internal port : 22 External port :22 [link]youtube.com/watch?v=uG7-6JTafh8

[Nicholaz]

Is your internal IP still the same? With a router with DHCP you could technically get a different IP every time you turn on your PC (don't know about this specific router, it may be smarter, but the question is, if your internal IP is still the one in the table).

[Kenster]

This has nothing to do with OP's problem.