Firestarter is a GPL-licensed graphical firewall configuration program for iptables, the powerful firewall included in Linux kernels 2.4 and 2.6. Firestarter supports network address translation for sharing an Internet connection among multiple computers, and port forwarding for redirecting traffic to an internal workstation. Firestarter's clean and easy to use graphical user interface takes the time out of setting up a custom firewall.

The Firestarter project provides binary packages for Fedora Core 2 and 3, SUSE 9.2, and Debian; you can use RPM or apt for installation. A source tarball in available for installation on other distributions. GNOME 2.6 is required. If you are running KDE, your distribution's package manager will resolve any dependencies and install any required GNOME libraries.

Let the wizard be your guide

Firestarter automatically saves your settings and restarts itself upon reboot when installed from a binary package (RPM or .deb). The installation procedure puts a Firestarter icon in the System Tools menu if you are running GNOME. To launch firestarter in KDE, open a terminal window and type firestarter or create your own menu entry. Launching Firestarter the first time will bring up the first run configuration wizard. In it, select your network adapter. If you have a cable modem or a DSL connection that uses a dynamic IP address, check the box that reads "IP address is assigned via DHCP." Firestarter is now ready to protect your workstation.

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