hello again everyone. right ive been having a tinker and i've managed to get part of the masqurading working!!!! however the name server bit is shafted still. I can ping anything anywhere (as long as i leave the DNS flag mentioned in example 2 on!). However if i try to ping by using the DNS name it fails. So i tried this on the server and low and behold it too failed ?!?!?! when i turn the firewall of I can ping by name but i have no masqing (obviously). My question to the clever out there is what flag do i need to tweak, change , turn on turn off or hit with a 20 tonn lump hammer to get it to work. I had hair once.................. -- Stuart Hodgkinson Software Engineer "When bashing the keyboard into your forehead just isn't enough."