k, we are officially one giant leap closer. Yeah!
I remembered that last night I was going through http://www.howtoforge.com/perfect_setup_debian_etch_p3 which starts a Debian 4 install from scratch. And in Section 5 - page 3, right after installing openssh-server, he sets the machine ip from the default install dhcp assigned address to a static address, and sets the hostname.
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UPDATE:
PuTTY now connects from my Vista box.
Unfortunately, it says... "Network Error: Connection Refused"
But Hey! Almost home.
UPDATE:
I thought I try un-commenting all the lines in ssh_config
*** YEAH!!! : SUCCESS!!! ***
UPDATE:
Musta been something I did or didnt do. After a resinstall (again :)),
using Synaptic and going thru the config made it work perfect.
And I didn't edit ssh_config or sshd_config. Go figure. Must be a Noob's world.
Anyways, any comments, re: things I'm not aware off, and/or things I should tweak, especially re: Security, would be most appreciated.
Thanx for reading this far :)