putty times out on 5.3 box

[admin at tigergroup.org]

I can't seem to get remote access anymore but at the site everything seems to
work?? I run a webserver and all the sites run fine but all of a sudden no more
access through putty, or ftp. The only thing that is diff is I enabled ipfw but
only "open". It was always slow to get in using putty but now it just times out.
the box is a dual amd w/512 mb ram and otherwise seems fine. I'm just stumped.