Hi, I'm new to Linux and appologize if this is a dumb question. I've got Red Hat 8.0 installed on two computers. I've got the networking working fine, ping, telnet etc... The problem is with nfs. The only way I can get nfs working is by stopping iptables. How do I configure iptables? I have been starting and stopping it with the Red Hat configuration utility, but it doesn't seem to do anything except turn it on/off. TIA for an advice/answers

Chris

paste your output of 'iptables -n -L' and give me your local ip configuration for both machines.

Also, remember to hide any public IP addresses you may have in your configuration.

Here's the output from "iptables -n -L" on the client computer

Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination
RH-Lokkit-0-50-INPUT all -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0

Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination

Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination

Chain RH-Lokkit-0-50-INPUT (1 references)
target prot opt source destination
ACCEPT all -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0
REJECT tcp -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpts:0:1023 flag
s:0x16/0x02 reject-with icmp-port-unreachable
REJECT tcp -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:2049 flags:0
x16/0x02 reject-with icmp-port-unreachable
REJECT udp -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 udp dpts:0:1023 reje
ct-with icmp-port-unreachable
REJECT udp -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 udp dpt:2049 reject-
with icmp-port-unreachable
REJECT tcp -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpts:6000:6009 f
lags:0x16/0x02 reject-with icmp-port-unreachable
REJECT tcp -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:7100 flags:0
x16/0x02 reject-with icmp-port-unreachable

NFS server
hostname: black ip: 192.168.0.4

NFS client
hostname: blue ip: 192.168.0.5

I hope that's what you meant by local ip

What's a black and a blue ip? I'm assuming they're both on your localnet, but for my own references, I don't know what you mean by black/blue.

Also.. What are all those crazy rules you have in your firewall? If you don't know, they probably came with redhat. One of the rules disables all incoming access to your privileged ports, another blocks all udp traffic incoming, the others seem to block specific ports..

If you're security conscious, you *NEED* to get someone that knows what they're doing to look at your net connected box or someone's going to hack your sh*t.

If you don't care, clear your firewall settings and redo it yourself with your specific settings instead of using an out-of-the-box config. The out-of-the-box config obviously isn't fitting your needs.

Hope this helps.

black and blue are the hostnames I gave the computers (based solely on the color of the case

I have no idea what all those rules are, they must be defaults. The two computers are sitting behind a D-Link router, which I believe has a firewall built into it. How dangerous would it be to rely only on that?

ha, good naming scheme. ;)

If you *think* there's a firewall on your d-link, you'd better check first. You probably don't *need* a firewall if you're just a single user jacking around with linux. But, it's great to have, and great to learn if you don't know much about it. Search for "iptables HOWTO" on google. *LEARN* how a firewall works, if you do that, you can run any firewall whether it's that POS windows software BlackICE or it's a Solaris Cyberguard box.

Again.. and this is advice I offer everyone, if you hope to be an efficient *nix administrator, learn this stuff. If you're just hobbying around, it's your call what you do with your time. That HOWTO is a great place to start. Richard W. Stevens book TCP/IP Illustrated is a great book to further your knowledge in firewalls and anything dealing with TCP/IP (As the title suggests.)

*shrug* maybe it was Steven W. Richards?

Dyslexia for cure found.