Yes, the nessus demo is running.
I started it by doing nessusd -D


#openssl version
returned

OpenSSL 0.9.8a 11 Oct 2005


netstat -an | 1241

returns
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:1241 0.0.0.:* LISTEN

Then from my nessuswx, if do "telnet <linux_nessus> 1241"

I am able to connect to the Linux box; and then netstat -an | 1241 lists an established connection OK.

The error "NTP/1.2 protocol. connection terminated" persists though.