iptables state matching

Hi,

just looking at the line below, which I have seen in some firewalling configurations, and I'm wondering about the state directive.

iptables -A INPUT -i eth0 -m state --state NEW,INVALID -j DROP

This line appears to drop all packets from NEW connections, which suggests that only ESTABLISHED and their RELATED connections will be pass on. Now, if I have above this a line that says:

iptables -A INPUT -i eth0 -s 212.18.226.160 -j ACCEPT # Chris at home,

then I would expect my connections from home to the firewalled network to be accepted.

My question is this: I am assuming that any connection I make from home would be a NEW connection, so how would I be able to keep the current firewalling restrictions, whilst allowing connections from my home IP 212.18.226.160?

thanks guys,
christo

okay I've worked it out... rules are checked sequentially

Christo