Jerry:

Thank you for the replies.
Am using Mandrake 8.2 downloads. Everytime I re-install everything goes well and automatic.

My main goal is to host a Web-server, and have access to the e-mail server to send e-mails from my progs written in VFP 7. Reason is each e-mail is custom based on the database I currently maintain in VFP 7 on my w2k machine.

I do this at work daily with no problems using the corporate mail-server, but
i wanted to take advantage of the Samba server, to send some files automatically from VFP 7 into the linux machine.

With mandrake everything works fine, it is all automated plug and play type of a thing, but these connection is critical to my home project.

Someone suggested a router to achive firewalling and forget about cross-over cables.

Still, i feel my first steps in this scenario are not 100% easy.

I will try for ip_forward = 1 and see if there is anything that gets closer to my goals.

Regards,