hello, I have a desktop runnning mandrake and a desktop running windows 2k. The desktop that is running mandrake is connected to the internet througha broadband modem the connection is eth0 and the internet works fine on the mandrake box the other nic card is connected directly to the windows 2k box via crossover and that connection is eth1. The windows 2000 computer can communicate just fine with the mandrake box share files both ways it can even see other computers past the mandrake box but cant access them. I can ping the eth0 interface on the mandrake box but cant ping past it. If I can see the other computers but cant ping them then this tells me that net bios is working and tcp/ip is not. But that cant be right, can it? The firewall in the mandrake box is turned off but ip tables is on or else ics wont work at all. Typically the windows box has no security like usual no firewall no ip filtering of any kind or any crap like that a normal dhcp client that works fine when connected directly to the modem.