hey all,

i am a new linux user, and i'm just trying to find out how to start&stop the firewall, i need to stop the firewall because i have to perform a serv.pck.2 upgrade on one of the windows XP boxes, i am using debian vers 2.4.19... can anyone help?

thanks in advance

As root, running "service firewall stop" should stop it. Then "service firewall start" to start it.

thanks Ranger Nemo, i'll give it a try...

In Debian you'd use "invoke-rc.d" instead of "service". First look into /etc/init.d/ to see what services you've got available. If you've got there a service called "firewall", you can do (as root) "invoke-rc.d firewall stop" to stop it, and "invoke-rc.d firewall start" to make your "firewall" service start again. (If the service refuses to stop, you can use "invoke-rc.d firewall force-stop".)

thanks dead parrot.... but i do not see firewall as a running process, i beleive there are running apache server, now i am new, not sure if apache is the firewall running.... if so then would it be "invoke-rc.d apache stop"...

if i'm wrong isn't there somewhere that would list what is running as my firewall...

thanks again in advance.

No, Apache is not a firewall. Apache is a "versatile, high-performance HTTP server". http://packages.debian.org/testing/web/apache

The list of popular Linux firewalls includes Guarddog (for KDE), Firestarter (for Gnome), Lokkit, Shorewall, and FireHOL. You should look for one of these among the init scripts (instead of "firewall" service, which I just used as a generic example).

You want to "perform a serv.pck.2 upgrade on one of the windows XP boxes", which means that you have a Debian box as a router or firewall between your LAN and the Internet, right? It sounds a bit strange that you don't know what firewall you are using. Anyway, take a look at /etc/inittab in your Debian firewall box and you should find in the first few lines the default runlevel number. Then take a look at /etc/rcX.d/ (where X is the default runlevel number). All the files in this directory are symbolic links to the actual scripts in /etc/init.d/, but there are considerably fewer of them than in /etc/init.d/. Now, your task is to find the service that configures your firewall. After you've figured this out, you can stop the firewall service with "invoke-rc.d service_name stop" and start it again with "invoke-rc.d service_name start". But first you need to have access to the firewall machine that is between your windows XP boxes and the Internet and, also, to figure out the name of the service that configures your firewall.

Does this make any sense to you?

does make sense, thanks dead parrot,

not knowing this myself is because i juste started this job fresh out of college, and they didn't teach enough of linux, juste the basics, and then programming... :P

does make sense, thanks... i'll manage from here on... forums do work