Ipmasq

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Getting Ipmasq
Ipmasq Docs
Ipmasq Bugs
Ipmasq Links
 Ipmasq is a utility designed to initialize IP Masquerade on Debian Linux systems for use as a firewall. IP Masquerade is a feature of Linux that allows an entire network of computers to be connected to another network (usually the Internet) with only one network address on the other network. IP Masquerade is often referred to as NAT (Network Adress Translation) on other platforms.

By default, ipmasq configures the system on which it is installed as a basic forwarding firewall with IP spoofing and stuffed routing protection. The firewall will allow hosts behind the firewall to get to the Internet, but not allow connections from the Internet to reach the hosts behind the firewall. However, ipmasq features a very flexible framework where you can override any of the predefined rules if you so choose. It also allows you to control if the firewall rules are reinterpreted when pppd brings a link up or down.

Getting Ipmasq

Ipmasq is a part of the Debian distribution of Linux, and can be downloaded from any of Debian's mirrors. It can be installed on a Debian system by running the following command as root: 
apt-get install ipmasq

The current version is 3.4.1, which is currently part of the development distribution of Debian (currently codenamed potato). Version 3.2.5 shipped with Debian 2.1 (formerly codenamed slink).

Ipmasq Documentation

Ipmasq's user's manual is a useful source of information about how to use ipmasq.

Also, the following manual pages contain information about the ipmasq system:

  • ipmasq(8)
  • ipmasq-kmod(8)
  • ipmasq-rule(5)
  • ipmasq-modules(5)
  • default-if(8), enumerate-if(8), ipofif(8), nmofif(8), peerofif(8)

Ipmasq Bugs

The Debian Bug Tracking System keeps track of bugs with ipmasq.

Ipmasq Links

I've assembled a number of useful links related to ipmasq.
Ipmasq News
Feb 19, 2000
Ipmasq 3.4.4 is released. This is a minor bugfix release.
Jan 10, 2000
Ipmasq 3.4.3 is released. This release backs out of a change which breaks some systems.
Jan 8, 2000
Ipmasq 3.4.2 is released. This is a minor bugfix release.
Nov 6, 1999
Ipmasq 3.4.1 is released. This is a minor bugfix release.
Oct 10, 1999
Ipmasq 3.4.0 is released. This update added some new capabilites to the ipmasq script and some much needed documentation.
Old News...
Last Modified: Sat Dec 25 12:21:04 1999
Brian Bassett ( bbassett@bbassett.net )