iptables and 2.4.4 kernel in testing

[Simon Read <simon@unix.csis.american.edu>]

Folks,

I'm trying  to build a firewall  using the 2.4.4  kernel and iptables.
The kernel seems  to configure and build without  problems, but when I
try to run iptables to specify a rule I get a message like:

modprobe: Can't locate module ip_tables
iptables v1.2.2: can't initialize iptables table `nat': iptables who? (do you ne
ed to insmod?)
Perhaps iptables or your kernel needs to be upgraded.

I have a two difficulties interpreting this message: iptables is not a
dynamically loadable  module in 2.4.4  but is compiled in;  no modules
were built at all for my 2.4.4 kernel.

Can someone  tell me what  I need to  do to get iptables  working with
this  kernel?   I'd  also  appreciate  some pointers  on  getting  the
protocol masquerading  modules to compile in statically  to the kernel
(I  dislike  and  distrust  dynamically loadable  kernel  modules  for
reasons I don't need to get into here).

Simon