newbie help: redhat 7.3 , sshd , linksys firewall

ok as the thread title stated, im running one machine w/ the redhat 7.3 dist. on my home LAN. im a linux newbie so im having problems trying to access this machine from work or school.

heres the setup i have:

linksys befsr41 4-port dsl router w/ port 22 forwarded to 192.168.1.22 (this is within the range that linksys allows for static ip assignment).

on the redhat box i then ran an 'ifconfig' and set the ip to 192.168.1.22, set the netmask to 255.255.255.0 and set the gateway to my router's ip...

so that should be it...

i ran a 'top' command to see if sshd is running -- it was.

heres where the funny business is:

i can connect to servers outside the firewall from the red hat box.
i can ssh into localhost from redhat machine itself.
i can ssh into the redhat box from behind the firewall

the only problem comes when i try to ssh into the machine from outside...

checked w/ verizon to see if they block any ports -- they dont


oh, also: i have ports forwarded my xp machines and they all work fine, its only when i forward to the redhat box that i encounter problems.

ive even tried putting the redhat box in the DMZ to allow full access and still have no luck

any help you guys could give would really be appreciated...

plz keep in mind im really new at using linux systems

thanks in advance --jc

p.s. if i need to clear anything up, please let me know

maybe it is a local firewall on the redhat system.
type "ipchains -L -n" to see if the chains contain any rules.

also, it could be the setup of your /etc/ssh/sshd_config. maybe it only allows connections from 192.168.* there...