help with port forwarding with PIX 515E

Note: 6.3(1) through 6.3(5) have security problems sufficient that if you are the registered owner of the system (e.g., not an ebay acquisition) then you are entitled to a free upgrade to a later 6.3(5)* rebuild.

And of course

access-group outside in interface outside

The above syntax would work provided that host x.x.x.x was NOT the same as the external interface IP address. If you are trying to NAT the external interface IP address, you would need to use

static (inside,outside) tcp interface 6100 192.168.1.12 6100 netmask

The word 'interface' and 'interface outside' there are literals.

The requirement to use 'interface' changed in 7.0, I understand.

there is a static route plugged in: static (inside,outside) x.x.x.x

so i thought that x.x.x.x should be the same for "access-list outside permit tcp any host x.x.x.x eq 6100"

I am saying that in PIX 6, if the IP address you are trying to NAT into is the IP address of the PIX external interface, then you cannot use the commands you had, and instead need to use the slightly different commands I showed (that use the keywords 'interface' instead of the interface IP address.)

If the IP address you are trying to NAT into is -different- than the PIX external interface IP address, then the commands you had are fine (provided you have "access-group outside in interface outside").