I can send mail from the SUSE6.4 server or from any win98 machine attached to it

Send mail where - can you send to demon or the internet or do you just mean sending mail locally ?

but I can't download the mail from the demon server.

What does /var/log/maillog (or whatever you have configured as the log for sendmail) say when demon tries to connect ? This may provide a clue. If there is nothing in the log, then check that sendmail is running and accessible from the internet side (maybe try to get someone to telnet to your machine, on port 25 and see if they get a text banner, whilst you are online ... ?) Kevin.