spotty access to web server

[Bill Tangren]

I am having a problem with my web server that is difficult for me to 
resolve. I have a web server at

http://aa.usno.navy.mil/

that most people can get to just fine. However, there are a small number 
of people that get a "connection refused" error. I have had a difficult 
time finding someone who:

1) gets this error
2) is technically savvy
3) willing to help

I have finally found someone, but I still can't solve this problem.

My server is behind a firewall (which I don't control). This helpful 
soul can get to other web servers behind the firewall, but not to this 
one. He did a traceroute, which was successful. I asked him to do a

telnet aa.usno.navy.mil 80

He got a "connection lost to host" error.

I was successful in doing a lookup and a reverse lookup on his IP 
number, so I don't think the server is having problems with DNS. His IP 
number and name do *not* show up in either web server logs or in system 
logs. It is as though he never tried to access the machine at all. I do 
have iptables on the machine, but I turned it off to see if it was the 
culprit. He still has the connection problem, so I guess iptables isn't 
the problem.

Does anyone know what I might try to solve this problem?

Bill Tangren