Ok....so if the counters will overflow if you leave them long enough, and to deal with this problem you may simply use the command "iptables -Z" to zero all counters. That would be really good information if I actually realized what the counters actually did!!!

Ive read a lot of information on iptables, but none of it really explain what the counters do.

Anyone?

Keep a running total of the number of packets and number of bytes that have been passed to a given chain. So by looking at the counters listed for the OUTPUT chain, it will tell you the number of outbound packets that have been sent and the total number of bytes in that traffic. Also note that the term 'overflow" is not being used in the same sense as a "buffer overflow". I believe it just resets and begins counting again, in which case the numbers listed would not be accurate. So you don't need to constant reset them to keep your machine from crashing.