hi folks, 

I have a couple of NetBSD 1.5.2 machines I'd like to network, using 10.0.0.x
addresses.

I'm using the machines' /etc/hosts files to set hostnames and ip addresses,
and bringing the links up with /etc/ifconfig.<interface>. that all seems to
work fine - I can ping one from the other and traceroute from one to the other,
do 'arp <host>' and see the correct ethernet address for <host>, etc, but
can't seem to make any TCP connections.

I swapped one of the hosts for an identically configured FreeBSD system
(actually, swapped the hard drive for one with FreeBSD on it, so it's literally
the same hardware) and found that things work from the FreeBSD side - I can
ssh from the FreeBSD to the NetBSD box, get to the outside world from the
FreeBSD box via the NetBSD box as a gateway (I'm on a dialup), etc, but still
couldn't ssh from the NetBSD box to the FreeBSD box.

because of the FreeBSD experience I'm assuming it's a configuration issue, not 
a hardware issue, but I could be wrong. just in case: the box I tried the FreeBSD 
system in is an HP Pavilion n3330 (laptop) with a Linksys EtherFast card (ne2), 
and the other is a ThinkPad 600e with a Dell-branded 3com EtherLink 
3ccfe575ct-d (ex0).

the question is, why won't my NetBSD boxes talk to each other? what am I doing 
wrong? 

sorry if the explanation is unclear. I can give more specifics if you tell me 
what to try. :)

--
m a r k p                 `` simple ain't easy. ''  --t.s. monk