Hello All!

This is my first posting in the list, so please tell me, if I did
anything wrong. ;-)

A while ago a friend of mine put up an FTP-server behind a
non-linux-firewall under w2k. Not that I appreciate that, but he is not
into linux and he does what he likes to, anyway.
The problem was (and he always used to tease me with that), that none of
his linux-friends sitting behind a linux-router (using NAT) could reach
his ftp-box further than logging in while anyone else could use it
completely.
After installing kernel 2.4.18 and iptables 1.2.7-20020503 I was the
only linux-guy known to him who could reach his FTP-box.
Then he put the FTP-Service on a different port and I couldn't ftp to
his box, anymore, but non-linx-guys still could.
The solution I now found here (modprobe ip_conntrack_ftp ports=21,xxxx
modprobe ip_nat_ftp ports=21,xxxx) is good for a start, but not really
satisfying, because you explicitly have to enter all ports that any user
behind the firewall  (in my case only my wife and me, but we're not the
only linux-users on this planet ;-) ) may ftp to. This is in contrast to
my whish to create a flexible powerful router/firewall with the least
possible administration effort.

To me it seems, that the simplest and the most brutal way to do it would
be as follows:

#define MAX_PORTS 0xffff
...
for (int i=0; i<0xffff; i++) ports[i]=i;

(Alternatively I could find the place, where ports[0..x] is being
checked against a port and kick that out...)

But somehow I have this feeling,  that this would make my box *really*
slow,  and that this is not, what the creators of netfilter thought
of...
Have you got any suggestions?

Thanks in advance,


Philipp Klostermann


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