Hi - this is my first post here so be gentle with me :-)

I was asked if it was possible to use IPTABLES to bounce an outbound request, let's say for google: 74.125.67.100, to a different local IP, say 192.168.1.1?

In the past I've been able to use 'redirect' on a multi-nic box to force all port 80 traffic to Squid on 8080, but this was indiscriminate. All port 80 traffic was sent through.

A quick look around has suggested DNAT to me, so I've tried:

iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp -d 74.125.67.100 --dport 80 -j DNAT --to-destination 192.168.1.1:80

When this did not work I've added:
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -j MASQUERADE

And ... sysctl net.ipv4.ip_forward = 0 so...
echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward

But no matter what, my humble little box always takes me to google when I call http://74.125.67.100 (or curl 74.125.67.100).

I'm stumped. I'm not even entirely sure I can do this with IPTables on a single nic box when the request is coming from that box.

Am I missing something painfully obvious (like wrong chain, or 'can't do that because..)

Thanks to anyone who gets the time to respond.

To alter the destination of packets originating from the local machine, you need to put the rule in the OUTPUT chain:

You can also use a REDIRECT target on the OUTPUT chain.

Thanks! I had a feeling about the output chain. That's just what the doctor ordered and works perfectly! Thank you so much.