SuSEfirewall2 no external ports open up

hello list, i have a problem with my firewall on my 9.1: if i allow some ports in /etc/sysconfig/SuSEfirewall2, for example FW_SERVICES_EXT_TCP = "8080" and restart the firewall i can see no rulez in iptables -L INPUT or input_ext that accept this port and requests are being blocked on that port. i did set up the same system on a different location and everything is working fine there...i can see all necessary rules in the input_ext chain. if i manually add a rule on my machine for that port it works fine, but why aren;t the rules set up correctly if i enter everything in /etc/sysconfig/SuSEfirewall2??? i don't get it...has anybody a clue what to do here??? TIA and best regards luk