Hi everyone. Before I ask my question, I just want to alert everyone that I am newbie to Linux and the netfilter architecture. OK, that being said, here's my question. I'm trying to determine how exactly an incoming packet is determined to be RELATED to an existing connection in Connection Tracking. For instance, how exactly does a TCP connection know that the packet is starting a new connection and this should be deemed RELATED? What fields (for lack of a better word) are compared to come to this conclusion? Thanks in advance.