How To Setup Firestarter In Ubuntu - A Beginner's Guide

Firestarter is a GUI for the iptables of ubuntu , it makes setting up of your firewall much easier and faster . Firestarter is a pretty old software but some of its features are really impressive like active connections and list of blocked hosts etc . So here's how you setup firestarter to do the basic tasks in ubuntu :

Step 1 : Go to the Terminal(Applications->Accessories->Terminal) and type sudo apt-get install firestarter . This would install firestarter in ubuntu


Step 2 : Now go to Applications->Internet->Firestarter to launch firestarter , you should see a page similar to this


Step 3 : Click on NEXT as shown in the screenshots below and then Select "Start Firewall Now" and click on Save



Step 4 : This is the BASIC window of firestarter

Step 5 : The Active Connections page would show all the active connections which your pc is currently working with

Step 6 : This is the basic setup of your firewall and now firestarter is configured to block all ports so therefore securing your machine . If you want to allow certain programs to access the internet on a certain port , then you would need to open ports . The guide below would tell you how to do that.

Opening Ports In Firestarter

Step 1 : In the firestarter window , click on Policy
Step 2 : Now choose Inbound Traffic Policy , now this deals with all incoming traffic


Step 3 : Now click on Allow Connections from host and then right click and click on Add Rule and specify the ip address of the person who you want to allow to connect to your computer. Now click on ADD



Step 4 : If you want to Open ports ONLY , then click on Allow Service and then right click and click on Add rule and specify the Port Which you want to open and you could also mention the source.Now click on ADD


Step 5 : Thats it , now click on Apply POlicy , You may need to stop and start the firewall again for changes to take effect