I can type "ssh localhost", and ssh will let me log in.
However, if I type "ssh 192.123.123.123" (or whatever my IP address is), it reports that "ssh_exchange_identification: connection closed by remote host" and kicks me out.

I have the firewall security set to "higher" and to allow access by www, ssh, and ftp. Since I can get in using localhost, I don't think that the problem is with the firewall. Rather, I think the problem lies in the configuration of the sshd daemon. I haven't touched the default settings from the way that Mandrake installed Openssh. Looking through the Openssh man pages didn't reveal anything that should be amiss.

Does anyone have any words of wisdom to solve this problem?
Thanks!

(Incidentally, I seem to have the a similar, probably related, problem with sftp.)

[moved from Software by spinynorman]

If you have the firewall set to high, it probably won't let you in because its set to not allow pasword only. Its looking for your key files. Have you installed them on your desktop and the computer/server your trying to connect to? If you haven't take a look here for how to generate them. http://www2.yo-linux.com/cgi-bin/man.cgi?topic=ssh-keygen

Thanks, anon! That is probably my problem, since I didn't know about this step. (I've used Linux and Unix variants since '95, but this is my first time trying to set one up as a reasonably secure server.)

Alas, I've already started installing Fedora (after a surprising amount of pain dealing with the Druid part of the install locking up on me) in hopes of overcoming the hurdle. (Red Hat 10 literally crashed 2 of my hard drives, so this was very scary!) If Fedora gives me any problems getting ssh, sftp, and www up and going, I'll return to Mandrake.

Thanks again for your help!