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→Investigation 8: How do I view and configure the IPTABLES firewall? -- Basic Function/Configuration
Essentially, Iptables is a list of rules. Each rule is placed into a particular chain and when data is sent into, out of or through a PC the data is checked against these rules. If the data matches a particular rule, it then must “jump” to a condition. Simple conditions include ACCEPT, DROP and LOG but there are also more complex conditions that can be applied and there is even the option to create your own conditions.
Iptables consists of three multiple chains of rules . For firewall purposes, three of these chains are important: – INPUT, OUTPUT and FORWARD. Here as brief explanation of these chains.
'''OUTPUT''' – When you want to do some research on the Web for something, you open a browser on your PC and navigate to http://www.google.ca. When you do you are attempting to establish an HTTP or HTTPS session with the web server at http://www.google.ca. A data packet is built with appropriate IP and TCP information and sent out of your computer but before it goes out to the Internet it will be compared to all of the rules in the OUTPUT chain to see if this data is allowed to go “out” of the PC. If it is not allowed then the packet is dropped.
