Firestarter firewall question

[JohnH]

Hi folks,

I have installed and configured Firestarter on my laptop. I would like some knowledgeable person to please let me know if my thinking is correct.Here is what I have understood the situation to be:

I have been assuming that after configuring my firewall with Firestarter, I don't need to intentionally restart it every time I boot the computer; my understanding (my guess really) is that Firestarter sets the ip tables (i.e. the configuration) and once done they remain done until otherwise changed. Therefore there is no need to restart Firestarter unless I need to change the ip tables again. Am I correct?

If I am correct then I will stop worrying.If I'm wrong then I will look for a way to auto-start it.

Regards
John

[900i]

Correct, it just configures IPTables. At least thats how I understand it, as I have not got Firestarter installed.

[Fred]

JohnH,

Take a look at my post in the below thread. Maybe that will clarify things a bit.

http://www.linuxmint.com/forum/viewtopi ... 90&t=10780

Fred

[micder]

If you like to see if it's up:

Code: Select all

xxxx@mint:~$ ps aux |grep firestarter
xxxx      7096  0.0  0.0   2992   776 pts/0    S+   19:14   0:00 grep firestarter

cheers

[Husse]

@ micder
Someone asking if Firestarter needs to run for IPtables to work is not likely to get anything out of your post
On a sidenote - I've tried to edit IPtables directly and it was more than a wonder that the computer did not find it's way out of the window (I talk of the thing with glass in the walls of your house )
Seriously it's extremely hard to edit.....

[Fred]

micder,

I have a much easier way to see if it is running. Look on the screen or in the application tray. It is a GUI application. Unless you have purposely changed the defaults, it doesn't run unseen.

If you had read my post in the thread I provided, you would have know that it didn't need to run to have the Linux port controls, ie iptables/Linux firewall, active.

Enjoy life, it is too short to do otherwise.

Fred

[JohnH]

Thank you one and all,

So it seems my hunch was correct. Ip tables remain static and Firestarter does not need to be started everytime I boot; only to change my settings.

thank you,

John

[Fred]

JohnH

You are welcome kind sir. And yes, your hunch was indeed correct.

Fred

[caris_mere]

micder,

I have a much easier way to see if it is running. Look on the screen or in the application tray. It is a GUI application. Unless you have purposely changed the defaults, it doesn't run unseen.

If you had read my post in the thread I provided, you would have know that it didn't need to run to have the Linux port controls, ie iptables/Linux firewall, active.

Enjoy life, it is too short to do otherwise.

Fred

I am using firestarter. I followed the instructions from their site about having it start automatically. When I look in my open sessions, it shows it to be running. However, the system tray icon doesn't show up. Any ideas why? I'm running 4.0.

Scott

[Fred]

caris_mere,

Firestarter has some data gathering features, check the web site. In order for them to work, the data gathering routine of firestarter has to be running in the back ground. The firewall, or iptables itself, always runs, it is part of the ports infrastructure. The configuration GUI doesn't need to run unless you are setting the port rules. The data gathering doesn't need to run unless you just want to log the many thousands of attempts to probe your computer ports.

Hope that helps some.

Fred

[rhvkl]

micder,
I have a much easier way to see if it is running. Look on the screen or in the application tray. It is a GUI application. Unless you have purposely changed the defaults, it doesn't run unseen.
Fred

... well it's in the tray for some minutes up to some hours but after a while it's gone?