Thanks heaps Demonbane for sticking with my post this far!
This is quite odd indeed...I have httpd running on my linux box (10.0.0.2). I have configured my router to foward port 80 from all sources to 10.0.0.2, i have the correct ip assigned to the hostname pointer, and as far as configuring apache goes, i havent touched it....

make you don't have a firewall running blocking the port

Ok, firewalls are kind of configured using IPTables right? What i do know is that i have never installed a commercial firewall product on the linux system. What exaclty am i looking for, should i look in and around /etc/sysconfig/iptables ? I have not tampered with iptables since i did the install, so i can guarantee that the defaults are still in place.
Not sure if all this assists you or not...

The only line of any relevance to port 80 in my iptables script is this:

-A RH-Lokkit-0-50-INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --dport 80 --syn -j ACCEPT

stop iptables to make sure its not a firewall problem first

Sorry DemonBane, got another friend to try it, same error with iptables turned off. He couldnt ping my domain or my router. heres how i have it overall.

linux server = 10.0.0.2
router = 10.0.0.138

10.0.0.2
----------
Interesting ports on (10.0.0.2):
(The 1595 ports scanned but not shown below are in state: closed)
Port State Service
21/tcp open ftp
22/tcp open ssh
80/tcp open http
111/tcp open sunrpc
443/tcp open https
1024/tcp open kdm

10.0.0.138
-------
Interesting ports on (10.0.0.138):
(The 1597 ports scanned but not shown below are in state: closed)
Port State Service
21/tcp open ftp
23/tcp open telnet
80/tcp open http
1723/tcp open pptp

(they were shown as 'filtered' before) ?

-

sounds more like a port forwarding problem, if there's a firewall configured on the router make sure it allows incoming port 80.

hrmmm been at this for a while now, i think that the problem is with the linux box.
I have told my router where to send port requests, and have assure that the hostname points to the correct IP. I think the connection breaks when it hits the linux server. Doing some googling on iptables... One question though, since it also didnt work with iptable stopped, does not confirm that the problem is actuallly not with iptables??

-mindfestival