I have read three or four tutorials on the subject still none the wiser.
this one was the best seemed to make some sort of sense at the time

http://newbiedoc.sourceforge.net/tut...config.html.en

followed the instructions for iptables to the letter and not a peep from the browser but i can ping all of the workstations but not the cable box

only the box with two net cards in gets the web.

what files should I be looking at for clues ?

what are the possible errors that I have made?

How do I correct them?

Please Help

Being a newbie I still cant see the woods for the trees but am sure managing to bump in to lots of them DOH!!!

What kernel version?

Do you have:
1) A computer running redHat and two ethernet cards eth0, and eth1?
2) The internet connected to eth0, and another computer hooked to eth1?

What OS is on the internal computer?
More info please.

Information as follows

RedHat 8 Kernel version 2.4.18-24.8.0

Pc connected to internet has two network cards

eth0 to (NIC Intel 3905x) DHCP configured, internet via cable modem (Provider Telewest Broadband, Modem Motorola Surfboard 2400
eth1 to (NIC Intel 3905x) home Lan static IP 192.168.0.1

home Lan PC's (NIC Intel 3905x) one running Redhat 8 Kernel Version 2.4.18-24.8.0 Static IP 192.168.0.5

the other running XP Pro SP2 (NIC Intel 3905x) static IP 192.168.0. 2

Or have you generated a firewall scrit and placed it in /etc/sysconfig/iptables?

I think the best way to go is to write your own script for the router.
Open an editor and put:
#!/bin/sh
EXTIF="eth0"
INTIF="eth1"
echo " External Interface: $EXTIF"
echo " Internal Interface: $INTIF"
echo "1" > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
echo "1" > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_dynaddr
iptables -P INPUT DROP
iptables -F INPUT
iptables -P OUTPUT DROP
iptables -F OUTPUT
iptables -P FORWARD DROP
iptables -F FORWARD
iptables -t nat -F
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o $EXTIF -j MASQUERADE
iptables -A FORWARD -i $EXTIF -o $INTIF -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
iptables -A FORWARD -i $INTIF -o $EXTIF -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -p ALL -i $INTIF -s 192.168.0.0/8 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A OUTPUT -p ALL -s 127.0.0.1 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A OUTPUT -p ALL -o eth1 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A OUTPUT -p ALL -o eth0 -j ACCEPT


That should get you going. If you save the file as "firescript", make it executable by: chmod 700 firescript
then: sh firescript
then see if it was loaded: iptables -L
then: iptables-save > /etc/sysconfig/iptables
(All that was done on your router)
Then make sure you're using crossover cables.
Set up new internet connections (using wizard) in each networked box.
(You'll need to get DNS addresses for the internal boxes from the router)

I think that's pretty close...
If you get errors, go here and look for modules to load by adding them to the above script. Good luck!!

thanx for the info will give that a go tonight when I get home from work and let you know the result.