SSH Connection refused

Solution 1:

Seems that iptables isn't allowing connections on port 22, you should try stop iptables and try to connect again.

You can create a rule on iptables to allow connections on port 22 in this way :

iptables -A INPUT -i ethX -p tcp --dport 22 -m state --state NEW,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT
iptables -A OUTPUT -o ethX -p tcp --sport 22 -m state --state ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT

Where ethX is your network interface device, substitute it with : eth0, eth1 ... Depending on your needs...

Solution 2:

If it says connection refused then it means the port is open.. otherwise how will SSH Client know the connection was refused?!So that means your Open-SSH is actively blocking ALL incomming connection on the mini2400.

If the port was closed it would say connection could not be established. Ping will not determine if SSH will work, because ping produces an echo on the interface layer that has very little to do with the software side. (eg Ping has no port number, but needs to have an IP assigned to Echo back)

But to be sure you can try to Telnet into port 22 and see what the terminal says- If you get some feedback then the port it open.. yay! Otherwise connection timed out. Booo

So you need to change the config to allow local ip ranges to connect. it think sometimes it is commented in the conf file on some distros- Did you check that and make sure the setting are what you need on the MINI machine?

Solution 3:

Check if you can login (with PuTTY) to the server from your Windows 7. If yes, it means you should work on your VMWare settings (or the relation between your Windows and VMWare).
Also check with another user account. May be SSH access to 'root' is disabled.