I'm running Scientific Linux 6.1 and would like to set net.ipv4.tcp_syncookies=1. I've set that in /etc/sysctl.conf and, if I do a sysctl -p then sysctl -q net.ipv4.tcp_syncookies it shows it's properly set. Sadly, if I reboot the machine, and sysctl -q again, it goes back to 0.

I've tried to grep around and see if something else is resetting it to 0 during the boot process but haven't turned up anything.

I've googled and everything points to sysctl.conf.

The only thing I can think of is maybe networking isn't up by the time that file gets read but, honestly, I'm a developer and well beyond my natural skills here:) I'm tempted to just set it directly in /etc/init.d/network but then that feels hackish and so, I thought better of it and I'm here in search of the "right" way to do it. Any pointers?