Tortoise SVN cannot connect to svnserve of newly created Subversion instance on SuSe Linux Server

Question

I just started a new position where none of the code is in version control. One of my duties is to fix that. I have some space on a SuSe 10 box, and subversion 1.6 is installed. Following the instructions in the O'Reilly Subversion book, I've got a subversion repository with code in it, and svnserve running:

#lsof -i :3690
COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE NODE NAME
svnserve 15115 xxxxxx 3u IPv6 xxxxxxxx TCP *:svn (LISTEN)

Also, this command works
svnlook cat /home/svn/repos/ /project1/trunk/index.php

However, when I try to connect to the subversion repository from my desktop (running Windows) using TortoiseSVN, I get the error

Can't connect to host 'xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx': A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond.

I have tried multiple repository URLs, including:

• svn://internalmachinename.internalnetwork.com/project1
• svn://machinename/project1
• svn://machinename/repos/project1
• svn://machinename/svn/repos/project1
• svn://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/project1/trunk:3690

I don't have access to Cygwin because of the company's firewall policy, so I can't try to connect via the command line.

Answer 1

Before trying to use svn, use the simple ping command to check the connection between the two computers. Only if that works, go to the next step (which still isn't using svn!): check if you can reach the correct port using telnet.

Then, and only then should you try to use svn to do the connection.

Answer 2

The firewall suggestion was close - it was the firewall on my Windows desktop that was keeping Subversion from connecting.