Netfilter on RH 7.3 (x86)

["Raj Wurttemberg" <rajw@c64.us>]

Hello Everyone,

I am new to this mailing list and new to iptables. I have an x86 Linux
system running RedHat 7.3 as my SMTP gateway. The default RedHat install
was using iptables 1.2.5. I have recompiled my kernel (2.4.19) after
applying the latest netfilter "Patch-o-matic" and I have compiled and
installed iptables 1.2.7a.

I am more of a user and could not find any good HOWTO files for this, so
my example below is based completely on trial, error, and learning. :)
Please advise or correct me if I did anything wrong. To get iptables
installed on RedHat 7.3, I had to do several things:

1) Run "chkconfig --list" to verify the run levels for the installed
iptables 1.2.5
2) Copy the "iptables" file from the /etc/init.d to a temporary
directory for safe keeping.
3) Run "rpm -e iptables" to remove the installed iptables 1.2.5
4) Installed the new iptables 1.2.7a (/usr/local/sbin/)
5) Made symbolic links to the iptables files from the /sbin directory
(RedHat default location)
6) Copied the "iptables" file from my temporary directory back to
/etc/init.d directory
7) Run "chkconfig --add iptables" to add the service back into the
RedHat configuration
8) Run "ntsysv" and enabled iptables
9) Rebooted my server. Iptables 1.2.7a started properly

Now my system appears to be configured properly. Here is the output of
"iptables -L"

Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target     prot opt source               destination
Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT)
target     prot opt source               destination
Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target     prot opt source               destination

I can see that I have no firewall rules. I also see that the iptables
script in /etc/init.d is looking for a file called
"/etc/sysconfig/iptables". Is this the file that is supposed to contain
the rules? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
/*Raj*/