MAC Hash

[Jason Cosby <sky_jason@yahoo.com>]

All,

I have the following running on our server:

for m in xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx...about 75 MACs
do
  iptables -t mangle -A PREROUTING -i eth1 -m mac --mac-source $m -j ACCEPT
done

iptables -t mangle -A PREROUTING -i eth1 DROP

iptables -t mangle -A PREROUTING -i eth1 -m iprange ! --src-range \
   192.168.1.1-192.168.1.74 -j DROP

and encountered a noticable slowdown when I incorporated the above. Can anyone offer suggestions as to how to speed this up? I know that hash tables are out there, but I am not clear on their use. 

Thanks,
Jason