Networks laptop can ping server but not vice versa?

I'm trying to set up a secure tunnel between my laptop and server and I am running into a brick wall...

I will be setting up my laptop as the SSH server, and the server as the client (weird, huh?) and I do this at work with other computers just fine. I've installed and configured a SSH service on the laptop, but when I try to SSH in to the laptop, it can't seem to find it.

So I go and stop the SSH server to see if I can even ping the laptop at all...

Nope, ping times out every time.

So now I ping my server with the laptop, and I get an average of 1ms round trip with 0% packet loss.

How can I ping the server but not the laptop? Is this a windows firewall issue? I've got XP SP2 on both (home edition on the laptop, pro on the server)

Any tips? I'd really like a secure tunnel set up with my laptop as the server. This is so I can use Synergy to use my laptop's keyboard and mouse to control my server.

 

that brick wall your running into is most likely the SP2 firewall. Disable it.

 

As little as I respect most of what Microsoft has done, I do enjoy the firewall. I'm at work now and was able to discover which port needs to be opened for openSSH, so hopefully that will be enough to get things going.

Since I'm on a wireless network and I still don't quite trust merely WEP encryption, I like each of my boxes to have a firewall. As soon as I find a good open source one, I'll be switching, but all of the off-the-shelf ones keep borking my system. *shakes fist at zone alarm*

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction though!

 

I use Sygate PF and use the Mac Address Filtering for my computers, along with WEP this should be pretty secure.