Problems with accessing a RedHat Linux 7.2 from outside

Hi there!
Looking at the postings that were made in the past on this group, it
looks like others might have experienced this,however, I've checked
all the answers given to them and it still didn't sort out my problem,
so here it is:
Having installed the whole RH 7.2 with no firewall option, I seem to
be unable to access my Linux box from outside. If I go to the console
of the server, I can telnet, ftp and everything in it, however, from
the outside all the services seem to be disabled (even echo! ).
I suspected first some sort of missconfiguration with xinetd -- but
I've checked the configuration files in /etc/xinetd.d/ and they all
have a line which states "disable=no". Even more, the main xinetd.conf
file states only_from=0.0.0.0/0 (i.e. allow everyone -- I know it's
not the best idea but since I'm trying to solve this problem first I
thought I'd open the security as much as I can first and then try to
tighten it back). Also, I've checked the "ntsysv" and made sure that
the services are enabled (and of course they are, as otherwise I
wouldn't be able to telnet for example back into the same box).
Therefore I've suspected that it might be /etc/hosts.deny or
/etc/hosts.allow but having checked them, it turns out that it isn't
that either. As a matter of fact, as the files were empty, I've added
this line to hosts.allow:
ALL:ALL@ALL
(again I know it opens up the security a lot but I want to see the
damn thing working first )
Finally, I've blamed it on some sort of firewall, even though I
haven't selected that option. However, running "ipchains -L -n" gives
me this message:
ipchains: Incompatible with this kernel
Which I guess it means that it isn't the firewall restricting the
access either.
Now this left me hopeless as I don't know where else to look. To keep
things simple, I'm only trying to get the telnet working now (I know
about the security issues with the non-encrypted usernames and
passwords, however, I'm only trying this internally in an intranet
environment so I'm not bothered right now and anyway I'm not planning
on keeping telnet open). As I've installed ALL the RedHat packages,
both telnet and telnet-server packages are installed. So that's not
the issue either.
Has anyone experienced this before, and if so, what is the solution to
this?
Any help greatly appreciated!

Liviu Tudor