Cannot ping or ssh to amazon instance launched in VPC

Question

I created a VPC, added an internet gateway, added two subnets, and then launched an instance into that VPC. I created a security group that permits any traffic from anywhere and assigned it to that instance. I assigned to enable a public IP address (I didn't assign it an elastic ip).

I cannot for the life of me figure out why I cannot connect to public ip address of instance. I've literally gone back destroyed and created my vpc and instances with no luck.

There has got to be something simple I'm missing, it cannot be this difficult. What is going on??

Answer 1

You have created the internet gateway but must have forgot to attach the Internet Gateway to the Subnet in which you are launching the EC2 instances. Go to the subnet in which you have launched the EC2 instances and attach the Internet gateway to the subnet. When you check the route table for the subnet it should look some thing like this screenshot. That "igw" is the internet gateway.