Iptables

iptables

IP Packet Filter Administration utilities

Developer: The netfilter core team (numerous contributions from lots of individuals)
License: GPL
Web: http://www.netfilter.org/

iptables is the userspace command line program used to configure the Linux 2.4.x, 2.6.x and over, IPv4 packet filtering ruleset provided by netfilter.org. The iptables package also includes ip6tables, which is used for configuring the IPv6 packet filter. Since Network Address Translation is also configured from the packet filter ruleset, iptables is also used for NAT.

iptables is targeted towards system administrators. openSUSE users should use the Yast Firewall module to configure and control the firewall.

Version

To verify the version of the firewall, perform the following from the terminal.

/usr/sbin/iptables --version
iptables v1.4.3.2

Manual Update

Before manual compiling, please verify that the same newer version is really not ready to be installed from packages, maybe among "unstable" packages.

To manually update the firewall, visit netfilter.org and download iptables. Verify the signature or checksum, unpack the package, read INSTALL, and then perform the following steps listed below:

Configuring

Configure using a standard account. Since setting up iptables only requires reading source files and invoking tools, a standard account is adequate and there is no need to log in as Root. Note that the iptables default prefix is /usr/local, which is a different path than used by openSUSE.

 cd iptables-1.4.3.2/
 configure --prefix=/usr

Make

Make using a standard account.

 make

Root and directory change

Acquire administrative privileges and then change directory into the package directory used to build iptables.

 su -
 password:
 # cd iptables-1.4.3.2/

Stopping SUSE Firewall

Stop the firewall.

 # /sbin/rcSuSEfirewall2 stop
 Shutting down the Firewall done

Installing iptables

Install the new firewall.

 # make install

Starting Firewall

Start the new firewall.

 # /sbin/rcSuSEfirewall2 start
 Starting Firewall Initialization (phase 2 of 2) done

External Links

http://netfilter.org