Sounds like you got a carriage return problem.  did you edit the file 
on a windoze box and then save it and transfer it to you bsd box?
If so you have to go in and remove all the ^M's at the end of each 
line.



> hi, my friend sent me a ipf.conf file which he said would work for
> me.'
> 
> however on every line except blank ones I get an error when I try to
> load the rule set
> 
> enclosed is the file, I wonder - he uses netbsd 1.5.1, is that the
> reason?
>