[geeks] ipfw n00b question

[velociraptor]

I have a device that uses, essentially, ipfw for filtering
connections (it's a BSD-based load balancer).

I'm not all that familar with the guts of ipfw and am
trying to figure out whether packets are passing
through the device so I can determine if the problem
is the load balancer a PIX in the equation after the
load balancer (I don't have access to the PIX).

'netstat -an' shows no connections on the load
balancer, presumably because ipfw is doing all the
filtering in-kernel.

So, my question: How can I use ipfw commands to
see if packets are being passed, or is this even
possible?  Tcpdump is also an option, but I'm not that
familiar with it, either, so suggestions appreciated
there as well.

(Getting a crash course in trouble-shooting this kind
of thing due to attrition in the team dealing with the
firewalls.)

Thanks--
=Nadine=