alright , i just got on a box w/ XP on it in a different lab. Route print is vastly different and ipconfig worked. I'll post this later. im in calss right now

heres ipconfig on the windows box

windos IP configuation
Ethernet adapter Local Area Conenction:
Connection-specific DNS Suffic . : Centenary.edu
IP Address ...............................: 192.168.3.214
Subnet Mask.............................: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway.......................: 192.168.3.254

whats it all mean???

heres route print on this computer

Active Routes:
Network Destination Netmask Gateway Interface Metric
0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 192.168.3.254 198.168.3.214 20
127.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 1
192.168.3.0 255.255.255.0 192.168.3.214 192.168.3.214 20
192.168.3.214 255.255.255.255 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 20
192.168.3.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.3.214 198.168.3.214 20
224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 192.168.3.214 192.168.3.214 20
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.3.214 192.168.3.214 1

persistent Routes:
None

and something to add that I just thought I should mention. i just played around on this computer w/ ftp and ssh. I tried connecting to localhost, 127.0.0.1, and this ip. None of them conencted in either ftp or ssh. Anything i try in ssh i get an error that says the server is either down or there is a misconfigured firewall. Do you think the it department here at school could be blocking me out of doing this?

Both the windows machines you posted the routign tables on appear to be on different subnets. The first one may be on the same subnet as your linux box. Can the windows PCs ping each other - use "winipcfg" on win9x?

Your gateway on the linux box looks as if it shoule be "10.0.2.69".

I haven't tried pinging the two linux boxes yet, but I do have a possible answer to why this may be. The first windows box is from the lab in my dorm. The second is from a lab in one of our classroom buildings. Also how do I go about setting the gateay on my linux box?

Thry running "netconfig" and set it there.