When I restart my server, I lose all my iptables. With a completly open firewall, I'm able to ping and get results. However, this causes my ping to stop working...

# iptables -F
# iptables -P INPUT DROP
# iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT
# iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 443 -j ACCEPT
# iptables -P OUTPUT ACCEPT
# iptables -P FORWARD DROP
# iptables -A INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT
# iptables -A OUTPUT -o lo -j ACCEPT

When I flush the iptables, ping continues to not function. That seems odd and my newbie skills are maxed out... can someone show me the light? Also, what is the best (efficient,secure) way to have an iptables script run upon startup? Thanks in advance!

iptables -F INPUT

doesn't affect the chain's policy, which you've set to DROP.

Use:

iptables -P INPUT ACCEPT

to open things wide open.

Lyle

Okay that will allow me to start fresh, but how do I allow ping/lynx using the iptables above?