I shared a directory on my desktop and I can only access it via my laptop when I stop iptables on the desktop. I have no idea how to configure iptables to allow this access. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Todd

leupi: Iptables is something you just have to read about once. What the rules do is conceptually simple, but writing rules that work takes a little practice.

Online, look through the tutorials at http://www.netfilter.org/documentati...entation-howto (scroll down to Tutorials) and specifically look at http://iptables-tutorial.frozentux.n...tutorial.html, which includes numerous examples. Then add rules to /etc/sysconfig/iptables, restart the iptables services and see if the new rule(s) fix the problem.

Also, if you don’t mind spending a few $$$, these books would make a good addition to your library:

Running Linux, Fourth Edition (Matt Welsh, et al): US$29.67 (amazon.com)

Linux in a Nutshell, Fourth Edition (Ellen Siever, et al): US$26.37 (amazon.com)

Looks like it may take me a while to read through those tutorials, hell, I have time

I do have 'Running Linux: Third Edition' but saw no entry for iptables in the index. Did iptables come out after the 3rd edition was published? If so, back to Amazon...

For now, untill I get the iptables figured out I will just leave it off so that I can access my network; I do have a NAT router (Netgear FVS 318) so hopefully I can hang untill I get this figured out. Thanks again for the advice, I'll let you know how I did.

Todd

Iptables is covered in “Linux in a Nutshell...”, but it does not give practical usage examples. After getting an overview of iptables, what is really helpful is to look at practical examples.

I have never seen a truly “for beginners” explanation of how to write iptables rules, but the second online reference I gave above is not bad. Usually, distribution specific books with titles something like “Beginner’s Guide to Fedora...”, “Fedora ... for Dummies” and “Fedora ... Bible” show some iptables basics. If you want one, just go to amazon.com, search “books” for “linux fedora” and look through the customer reviews to get an idea about each book.

There are also web sites that will write simple rules based on your input, but I don’t have a list of them.