[Tfug] Xinetd/vsftpd connection problem

[Adrian]

OK, I'm having a weird problem with vsftpd that is making me tear my hair 
out... I can not get external connections to work. I set up vsftpd and 
updated xinetd appropriately. Restarted the service and am able to connect to 
the server just fine from another machine on the internal network... but 
connections to the server from an external IP address do not work!

This machine sits behind a DSL modem doing NAT, it has no external IP address, 
no firewall settings, but knows the external route (several ports are 
forwarded to it, currently hosting HTTP and SSH just fine). As I said, 
internal IPs work just fine, trying from an external IP, I see the SYN 
packet, but no response is ever sent. It looks like xinetd isn't even 
starting the vsftd process to handle the incoming connection (though it does 
for an internal IP). There are no exceptions or restrictions in my 
xinetd.conf file. I have this exact same setup on another machine, the only 
difference being it has separate internal and external interfaces (and a 
firewall), with the same configuration and it has always worked fine... Any 
idea what I am missing?

============================================
xinetd.conf
#
# Simple configuration file for xinetd
#
# Some defaults, and include /etc/xinetd.d/

defaults
{
        instances               = 60
        log_type                = SYSLOG authpriv
        log_on_success          = HOST PID
        log_on_failure          = HOST
        cps                     = 25 30
}

includedir /etc/xinetd.d

=============================================
xinetd.d/vsftpd
# default: off
# description: The vsftpd FTP server serves FTP connections. It uses \
#       normal, unencrypted usernames and passwords for authentication.
service ftp
{
        disable = no
        socket_type             = stream
        wait                    = no
        user                    = root
        server                  = /usr/sbin/vsftpd
        nice                    = 10
}

==============================================
vsftpd.conf (comment lines snipped)
# Example config file /etc/vsftpd.conf
#

local_enable=YES

write_enable=YES

local_umask=022

dirmessage_enable=YES

xferlog_enable=YES

connect_from_port_20=YES

xferlog_std_format=YES

chroot_list_enable=YES

pam_service_name=vsftpd

use_localtime=YES



Adrian