> As a final thought, messing directly with your iptables setup is fun but > can become a distracting and wasteful time burner. If you are, or can > get comfortable with any of the GUI based firewall setup tools on Fedora > I urge you use them. They are not as flexible as direct manipulation > but they are less error prone and, unlike the advice I give above, they > are not based on someone else's iptables assumptions, which when unknown, > (as in this case), will eventually bite you. Thanks again for the great advice Jeff - I will read and re-read the link you sent until something sinks in. In the meantime I have been (not comfortably) using the iptables command but would rather use one of the "GUI based firewall setup tools on Fedora" you mention above. I did try all of the logical system-config-xxx commands I could find but none that show me a neat list of iptables. Tips-for-Dummies, or better links-for-dummies here would help. Dabblers in an area like this can do more damage than good - like someone who provides an open relay to the entire spam world without knowing it..... :-( ...for instance. thanks, bob
