Ubuntu: Stat / Stop / Restart Iptables Firewall Service

New Ubuntu Linux version 12.04 LTS user. How do I stop or start iptables based firewall service on Ubuntu Linux using bash command line options?

You can type the following commands start / stop firewall service on Ubuntu based server or desktop.

 a] ufw command – This command is used for managing a Linux firewall and aims to provide an easy to use interface for the user.

b] iptables command – This command is used to set up, maintain, and inspect the tables of IPv4 packet filter rules in the Linux kernel.

Find status of firewall

Login as root user either by opening the Terminal or login over the ssh based session. Type the following command:
$ sudo ufw status
Sample outputs:

Status: inactive

Ubuntu stop iptables service command

Type the following command to unloads firewall and disables firewall on boot:
$ sudo ufw disable

Ubuntu start iptables service command

Type the following command to reloads firewall and enables firewall on boot:
$ sudo ufw enable

Ubuntu reload / restart iptables service command

Type the following command to reloads firewall:
$ sudo ufw reload

Alternative method to enable/disable firewall on Ubuntu and other Linux distros

If you are not using ufw command and/or ufw is not installed, try the following generic methods:

Get IPv4 iptables status

$ sudo iptables -L -n -v

Get IPv6 ip6tables status

$ sudo ip6tables -L -n -v

Save IPv4 iptables firewall

Use the iptables-save command to save current firewall rules:
$ sudo iptables-save > $HOME/firewall.txt

Save IPv6 ip6tables firewall

$ sudo ip6tables-save > $HOME/firewall-6.txt

Restore IPv4 iptables firewall

Use the iptables-restore command to restore firewall rules:
$ sudo iptables-restore < $HOME/firewall.txt

Restore IPv6 ip6tables firewall

$ sudo ip6tables-restore < $HOME/firewall-6.txt

Putting it all together

To stop Ipv4 based iptables firewall, enter:

sudo iptables-save > $HOME/firewall.txt sudo iptables -X sudo iptables -t nat -F sudo iptables -t nat -X sudo iptables -t mangle -F sudo iptables -t mangle -X sudo iptables -P INPUT ACCEPT sudo iptables -P FORWARD ACCEPT sudo iptables -P OUTPUT ACCEPT

To stop Ipv6 based iptables firewall, enter:

sudo ip6tables-save > $HOME/firewall-6.txt sudo ip6tables -X sudo ip6tables -t mangle -F sudo ip6tables -t mangle -X sudo ip6tables -P INPUT ACCEPT sudo ip6tables -P FORWARD ACCEPT sudo ip6tables -P OUTPUT ACCEPT

Where,

1.    -F : Flush the selected chain (all the chains in the table if none is given). This is equivalent to deleting all the rules one by one.

2.    -X : Delete the optional user-defined chain specified. There must be no references to the chain. If there are, you must delete or replace the referring rules before the chain can be deleted.

3.    -P chainNameHere ACCEPT : Set the policy for the chain to the given target.

4.    -L : List rules.

5.    -v : Verbose output.

6.    -n : Numeric output. IP addresses and port numbers will be printed in numeric format.