So I'm in the process of trying to write some iptable rules. I'm not new to linux by any means, but I do need some help.

iptables -A forward -i eth0 -o eth2 -j accept

this is the rule I am trying to write to be able to get the traffic from eth0 to go out through eth2, I still have to write it to be able to allow it to come back in again, but the problem I am running into is that when I hit enter it gives me this:

iptables v1.3.5: Couldn't load target `accept':/lib/iptables/libipt_accept.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

And I'm not sure why. Please help.

This may seem like a dumb qn, but are you logged in as root when you do that?

Yes, I am logged in as the root account. There are no other accounts set up on this particular machine because I'm the only one with access to it. It might help to know that this is a virtual machine and not a physical machine.

You need to type "ACCEPT" (in all uppercase letters), not "accept". That's causing your error. Still, this command won't make any difference unless you've got your routes or relevant NAT rules set.