i'm a real unix newbie, setting up a network, with a router to router vpn connection with a remote site, all the win stuff is talking and pinging and all the stuff it should be doing (yeah and crashing too, lol) but no communication with the unix box, i think the problem is with my default gateway on the unix system. i need to know how i can check this, and how i can set it if necessary. any help would be greatly appreciated.

You can check the default gateway by using the netstat -r command - have a look for a route with destination "default" or "0.0.0.0". You can then add the route if necessary using the route command (man route for info).

Please let us know which OS you're using, as different OS's require different files to be edited to make routing tables persistent across reboots, etc

Cheers
ZB

check the default gateway that's configured on your talking windows box and put that value into whichever file you need to edit (i.e., /etc/defaultrouter for solaris) or however else you get to set the default route on your unix box ...

the machine in question is actually running svr4 unix, with galaxy on top of it. when i run the netstat the default gateway is the host name of this machine.