Debian + ipchains: protocol not available
 

Hello Everyone, sorry to waste your time, I know this is a newbie question but I really need some help!

I am trying to setup a firewall on a debian machine. No matter which firewall software I try and run I still get the same message

ipchains: protocol not available.

I've tried to apt-get ipchains and it sais that I alrady have the newest version. Also when I try to setup a new rule "ipchains -N fw1" I get the same message.

So I guess the question is what did I do wrong? What do I do to fix it? and what type of firewall should I be running on a debian machine?

Thank you for your time!

-jim

If you have a fairly recent version of debian (kernel version > 2.4) you will need to use iptables instead of ipchains. ipchains is older and used with the 2.2 version of the kernel.

Ok thanks,I am using debian 3.0 woody, it uses a 2.2 version of the kernel. But it still doesn't work? Any suggestions?

Does lsmod show the ipchains.o module loaded?

no lsmod only shows me:

parport_pc
parport
af_packet

thats it.

So i am going to assume that means that ipchains is not running? Do I just need to install the module? or just start it up?

Please advise!

See if you got it: "find /lib/modules/$(uname -r) -type f -name ipchains.o", then try to "insmod" it manually.

I get nothing when I search for the module. So I am gonna guess that it means I dont have it and I should get it and install it. Thanks for your help!