firewall-masq-router issues

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hey everybody,
Is there an issue with setting up a firewall -masquerading and routing on machines that were installed with high firewall security?

i'm using a USR extern. serial modem, no prob connecting, ethernet also works no prob through an Encore 8port hub

I've had the same problems on two different machines one running 2.3 and the other 3.0.1. As far as I can tell I have everything installed to get a firewall masq and routing up and running and I can ping the internal network no prob as well as external. though can't ping the router from the network.

My system logs give me some strange stuff like atalk: atalkd startup failed, but i guess that could be because no devices are up at boot. PPP also gave me errors, but i adding
alias ppp-compress-21 bsd_comp
alias ppp-compress-24 ppp_deflate
to /etc/modules.conf seemed to take care of it.

I've tried several scripts now and they all bring me to the same place, any insight would be much welcome!
thanks

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countless hours and even days, it was nothing more than a misplaced DNS....