How to get SSH working on Linux laptop

I recently became interested in SSH, and so I attempted to set up a SSH server on my Linux laptop. I am running moonOS, a version of Ubuntu with the Enlightenment WM.

First of all I ran "sudo apt-get install openssh-server". All fine. Now I looked at the settings for my router, and though I saw no settings explicitly called "port forwarding", there was a checkbox to enable SSH. I checked this box and set the port to 22. After this I tried "ssh localhost", and it connected fine.

Now I checked my IP address using www.whatismyip.com, then ran PuTTY on my WinXP laptop, entering the IP address, the port, selecting SSH, etc. Then PuTTY complained that "the connection was refused". Okay. I booted a Jolicloud LiveUSB on my netbook and ran "ssh [my user name]@[my IP address]". Again, the connection was refused.

So off I ran to the internet and looked up the documentation for OpenSSH. In a wild guess, I tried running "sshd" on the moonOS laptop, but it just replied, "sshd re-exec requires execution with an absolute path".

Some help? I have no idea what I'm doing wrong here.