Update Firewall Rules

[Giorgos Keramidas]

On 2003-05-22 04:16, Carolyn Longfoot <c_longfoot at hotmail.com> wrote:
> How do I switch the firewall rules on a system without rebooting?
> I tried executing /etc/rc.firewall OPEN for example but the same
> rule set is put in place again that is defined in /etc/rc.conf.

There's always the "manual" way:

	ipfw add 1 pass ip from any to any
	ipfw add 2 pass ip from any to any

Then you load all your "new" rules after rule 1, and after you're done
delete rule number 1:

	ipfw del 1

Doing thing on a remote machine that you cannot possibly access if
something goes wrong (i.e. a collcation server) is probably not a good
idea though.  In cases like these, I usually follow the following
procedure when tinkering with firewall rules to avoid locking myself
out of a machine I can't login to afterwards:

	a) Schedule a reboot in 15 minutes or so.

	b) Load new firewall rules.

	c) Test rules.

	d) Unschedule the reboot if all goes well.

HTH, Giorgos.