Need some help with PF rule letting two machines access each other

[Erik Norgaard]

Pat Maddox wrote:
> 12.34.56.78 runs a server on port 1234
> 87.65.43.21 should connect to this
> 
> Both of them have PF rulesets that block off most traffic, keeping
> open the publically available ports I need open.  In this case though,
> any traffic over this port should only be between these two machines.
> I've tried to set this up, but I keep getting operation not permitted,
> connection refused, and connection reset by peer errors.  Thanks for
> any info.

It's quite difficult to tell which rule catches your packets without the 
ruleset. Try this:

1) Add "log" to all block rules
2) Check you have keep state in pass rules
3) Check you have quick in your pass rules

If you have a default block policy, then you should generally have quick 
in pass rules or you might have packets marked for passing being caught 
later by a block rule.

I generally prefer having the default policy at top without quick, and 
then set quick on rules taking an explicit action.

Cheers, Erik