casting my electrons to the solar winds .... I read somewhere that the newest kernel ( to be releases on Feb 12 w/ suse7.1?) ACn do stateful firewalling. This brings packet filtereing down to a really fine art. I have been waiting for the newest suse release to become available before getting into this bit of making a network work, *safely* ( well okay, it only seems a bit safer for folks who are not 110% knowledable , but this is what we have to work w/ , and for . If only to mitigate any potential liabilities lawyers can dream up <sigh>) since there is so much tweeking to do anyway, I doubt anyone has noticed whether the Suse 7.0 firewall is successful or not. Any guidence on the newest firewalling theory , w/ the newer capabilities, ANd general information will be appreciated. feel free to post to the list or proivately, however, recomendations to go boil my head , will be strictly and cheerfully ignored <G> Blonde j afterthought: Talk is cheap, because supply exceeds demand.