I have used linux ipchains/ipmasq for my firewalls and gateways at home for dial up and at our temporary office here over the dsl line. I haven't messed with anything bigger than that. I am wondering now about routers mostly. what exactly does a router do that my ipmasq linux box doesn't I don't really want a complete lesson on this just a quick overview of what it is for. basicly I am setting up a net work for a t1 line. from the t1 it goes into a router, from there it goes into my linux firewall with ipmasq being used as the gateway to the internet. then going to a 192.168.x.x network in our lan. I have a dhcp/samba/dns server running inside the firewall for the lan also. now for the real questions. Is this what I should be doing? and could I get a basic explination of networking from the lan to the internet? These questions almost seem trivial to what I feel I should know but don't. It just seems my knowladge is really full of holes. also is there any good reading I could pick up for explaining this kind of stuff that is 900+ pages? Bill Warner ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com