2011-10-27, 04:47 PM
Can you ssh in from another machine? Also, are you trying to ssh in as root?
Also, try using the IP rather than "localhost" on the box itself, see what response you get.
Lastly, check the logfiles. /var/log/auth or /var/log/secure ought to have some information about the SSHd, so may show reasons why your login was rejected.