Biscuit maybe you are missing some compiler flags (like "lines,vars,source") to allow remote debugging.
For example, is you are using Ant you need to add this lines to your javac:
<!-- Javac lines, vars, source compiler flags -->
<javac srcdir="..." destdir="..." classpathref="..." debug="true" debuglevel="lines,vars,source" />
Then in your execution script you jave to add:
<!-- debug configurations: modify the port you want-->
<jvmarg value="-Xdebug"/>
<jvmarg value="-Xrunjdwp:transport=dt_socket,server=y,suspend=n,address=4060"/>
On the other hand, if you are using Maven same flags can be added in the , like this:
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.0.2</version>
<configuration>
<!-- Necessary in order for the debug levels to be considered-->
<debug>true</debug>
<debugLevel>lines,vars,source</debugLevel>
</configuration>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
In case of using Jetty, same as before... you need to have the following variable:
export MAVEN_OPTS="-Xdebug -Xnoagent -Djava.compiler=NONE -Xrunjdwp:transport=dt_socket,address=4000,server=y,suspend=n"
On the other hand, what you can check is setting the suspend flag to "yes", it is "suspend=y". This won't start your app unless you connect a debugger to your port.
Here you can check specific info about jboss:
http://webdev.apl.jhu.edu/~jcs/ejava-javaee/coursedocs/605-784-site/docs/content/html/devenv-jboss-setup.html#enable-jboss-debug
And always check stoping your firewall. In case of iptables, you can execute the following command:
service iptables stop
Oh, an another thing you can try is checking if your port is currently used by another process:
In windows:
netstat -nab
Linux:
netstat -nap
Hope to help.