Hi,
    I'm a Router/PIX guy that is just getting into the Linux/IPTables scene. I've read the man pages and searched the web for information on IPTables. And I'm not able to find answers to some of my questions. Maybe you can help?

• If SNAT is configured for many to one (PAT), then I would presume that the connections are tracked by sequence numbers. Are the sequence numbers picked randomly, like the PIX? And is there a range in with they are picked from? What mod does this?

• A syntax question. I've looked at alot of syntax examples and I've noticed one character that I can't seem to match up with any of the tutorials or man pages.                                                                                                         $IPTABLES -A INPUT $WAN_IFACE \ -j DROP   What the heck is "\"? It looks like it would be used to separate the match and the target, but is not really necessary. Is this just a personal preference or is it needed?

Thanks for your time. I wish I had heard about IPTables a year ago. Anthony Stone does have cool sayings.
mike