weird netfilter problem

["Mike O" <mikeeo@xxxxxxx>]

Im trying to track down a problem Im having with iptables. For some reason 
the internal machines cannot reach the internet until I ping them from the 
iptables box. I check the conntrack tables and there still valid entries in 
there for that machine. if I reboot it works for about 5 minutes then stops. 
I tried upgrading the kernel to 2.4.26 and iptables 1.2.11 and the same 
problem happens. Any ideas? this was working fine for over 6 months then 
just starts doing this.

-Mike