Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3: System Administration Guide
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# 20.2. Activating the `iptables` Service

The firewall rules are only active if the `iptables` service is running. To manually start the service, use the command:

    /sbin/service iptables restart

To ensure that it is started when the system is booted, issue the command:

    /sbin/chkconfig --level 345 iptables on

The `ipchains` service is not included in Red Hat Enterprise Linux. However, if `ipchains` is installed (for example, an upgrade was performed, and the system had `ipchains` previously installed), the `ipchains` service should not be activated along with the `iptables` service. To make sure the `ipchains` service is disabled and configured not to start at boot time, execute the following two commands:

    /sbin/service ipchains stop
    /sbin/chkconfig --level 345 ipchains off

The Services Configuration Tool can be used to enable or disable the `iptables` and `ipchains` services.

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