18.1.1. IPTables Overview

18.1.1. IPTables Overview

The power and flexibility of Netfilter is implemented using the iptables administration tool, a command line tool similar in syntax to its predecessor, ipchains.

A similar syntax does not mean similar implementation, however. ipchains requires intricate rule sets for: filtering source paths; filtering destination paths; and filtering both source and destination connection ports.

By contrast, iptables uses the Netfilter subsystem to enhance network connection, inspection, and processing. iptables features advanced logging, pre- and post-routing actions, network address translation, and port forwarding, all in one command line interface.

This section provides an overview of iptables.


Note: This documentation is provided {and copyrighted} by Red Hat®, Inc. and is released via the Open Publication License. The copyright holder has added the further requirement that Distribution of substantively modified versions of this document is prohibited without the explicit permission of the copyright holder. The CentOS project redistributes these original works (in their unmodified form) as a reference for CentOS-4 because CentOS-4 is built from publicly available, open source SRPMS. The documentation is unmodified to be compliant with upstream distribution policy. Neither CentOS-4 nor the CentOS Project are in any way affiliated with or sponsored by Red Hat®, Inc.