no telnet localhost, ok elsewhere

[plug-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us]

Here's an intriguing question. Symptoms in bullet list:

o Two days ago I installed a RH7.2 system, with
  "medium" firewall protection selected

o There was a problem ... couldn't get out to the
  net. (DHCP problem.) So I reinstlled with no firewall.

o Still a problem. Turned out to be a bad ethernet card.
  Replaced it. Problem solved. Did not reinstall or
  tweak firewall.

o Meanwhile I've been using telnet without problems,
  because it was never shut off.

o I'm now reviewing a process document that shows how
  to enable telent, assuming it's off. I cd to
  /etc/xinetd.d and there is *no* file called telnet.
  I expected it to be there, but disabled.

o I created it by hand, with telnet enabled.

o Stopped and started xinitd. Now I find:

  - telnet localhost gives me Connection refused
  - telnet somewhere.onthe.net works

Any guesses why?


Lynn David Newton
Phoenix, Arizona