You shouldn't have to do that. That you had to do this suggests that you don't have your firewall service(s) (iptables and optionally ip6tables) turned on.
Firewall was set to disabled!
You generally want them turned on as soon as you turn on networking. You can see whether on this is true using chkconfig, such as: [bruno@wolff ~]$ chkconfig --list iptables iptables 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off
Mine was st to: [root@mars ~]# chkconfig --list iptables iptables 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:off 4:on 5:off 6:off
Because the supplied init script specifies that this service is supposed to be used in levels 2, 3, 4 and 5 when it is running, you should be able to simplify the above to: chkconfig iptables on
WORKED! I remember when I installed FC3, I specifically disabled the firewall. I guess this is what caused iptables not to start on level 3 & 5. I also noticed that the firewall service was still diabled after reboot. THIS SOLVED THE PROBLEM! Many Thanks!
