Possible hosts.allow problem

[carlf@panix.com (Carl Fink)]

In order to use IP-Masq I had to edit hosts.allow to accept
connections from my own other PC.  The only uncommented line there now
reads:

ALL: LOCAL 198.168.1.*

Since my laptop is 198.168.0.2, this *shouldn't even work*.  (I
originally typoed the IP address and just noticed it while typing this
message!)  However, since adding that line to hosts.allow, suddenly my
box is open *from any host anywhere*.  I've just confirmed this by
telnetting to my ISP's host and playing:  my ftp, telnet, and SMTP
ports are all open.

They were closed last week.

What the heck?

The only uncommented line in hosts.deny is

ALL: PARANOID

Surely that should be blocking anything not on my local LAN.  What's
up?

I'm running a very current potato.  (I run apt-get upgrade twice a
week.)  Kernel version 2.2.13.

Thanks for any help.
-- 
Carl Fink		carlf@dm.net
Manager, Dueling Modems Computer Forum
<http://dm.net>