thanks for the replies -- I actually got a real time caller who helped me check various items until we narrowed the problem down further. Got the connection back manually.
1. 3.5 vs 4.0 ------------------------------------------------------------------ I've just ordered the 4.0 CD's and as soon as they arrive I'll build a machine with 4.0 on it and hope everything gets back to normal. But in the meantime I still want to identify and fix the current problem. 2. 192.168.1.1 ---------------------------------------------------------------- this is the address of the Covad modem's DHCP server -- not of the external NIC (ne3) 3. the problem seems to be that the Covad DHCP server is not providing a gateway IP address. Or possibly the dhclient is not accepting one. At least, by using the netstat -rn command we found no default route. This means that nothing gets out the door. 4. Manually adding the default route makes the firewall work again: add net default: gateway 66.166.238.1 so the question is why is no gateway getting passed from the DHCP server to the external NIC? I am examining the dhclient.conf file to see what I can do with that. I have no /etc/mygate file in place which seems to be consistent with the documentation for mygate: /etc/mygate contains the address of the gateway host, if it exists. The gateway is added to the routing tables by the route(8) utility. If /etc/mygate does not exist, no default gateway is added to the routing tables. The file should contain a single line specifying the gateway address, in dotted quad notation (e.g. 192.0.2.0). /etc/mygate is processed after all interfaces have been configured. It will therefore override any DHCP-supplied default route information. Steve DiBartolomeo Artwork Conversion Software, Inc. [EMAIL PROTECTED]/[EMAIL PROTECTED]
