I use RedHat and use the Redhat-provided RPMs for all my server maintenance. $ uname -a Linux abigail 2.4.20-19.8 #1 Tue Jul 15 14:59:09 EDT 2003 i686 athlon i386 GNU/Linux I downloaded the RPM for iptables v.1.2.8 and executed rpm -Uvh. The command executed without errors and I can see six new files in /sbin: -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 58386 Jul 31 09:51 iptables-save -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 60196 Jul 31 09:51 iptables-restore -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 55410 Jul 31 09:51 iptables -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 60192 Jul 31 09:51 ip6tables-save -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 60400 Jul 31 09:51 ip6tables-restore -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 55760 Jul 31 09:51 ip6tables I then entered $ service iptables restart These three lines appeared quickly: Flushing firewall rules: [ OK ] Setting chains to policy ACCEPT: mangle nat filter [ OK ] Unloading iptables modules: and then nothing for five minutes. My terminal would not respond to CTRL-C. I opened another terminal and killed the job and saw this on the original terminal: /sbin/service: line 67: 21934 Terminated env -i LANG=$LANG PATH=$PATH "${SERVICEDIR}/${SERVICE}" ${OPTIONS} I tried executing my normal iptables shell script (the one that worked without exception under 1.2.6a), below is a partial output: + iptables -t nat --flush iptables v1.2.8: can't initialize iptables table `nat': Table does not exist (do you need to insmod?) Perhaps iptables or your kernel needs to be upgraded. + iptables -t mangle --flush + iptables -A INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT + iptables -A OUTPUT -o lo -j ACCEPT + iptables --policy INPUT DROP + iptables --policy OUTPUT ACCEPT + iptables --policy FORWARD ACCEPT + iptables -t nat --policy PREROUTING ACCEPT iptables v1.2.8: can't initialize iptables table `nat': Table does not exist (do you need to insmod?) Perhaps iptables or your kernel needs to be upgraded. ... + /sbin/insmod ip_tables Using /lib/modules/2.4.20-19.8/kernel/net/ipv4/netfilter/ip_tables.o insmod: a module named ip_tables already exists + /sbin/insmod ip_conntrack Using /lib/modules/2.4.20-19.8/kernel/net/ipv4/netfilter/ip_conntrack.o insmod: a module named ip_conntrack already exists + /sbin/insmod ip_conntrack_ftp Using /lib/modules/2.4.20-19.8/kernel/net/ipv4/netfilter/ip_conntrack_ftp.o /lib/modules/2.4.20-19.8/kernel/net/ipv4/netfilter/ip_conntrack_ftp.o: unresolved symbol ip_conntrack_helper_unregister_Reea5a3fd /lib/modules/2.4.20-19.8/kernel/net/ipv4/netfilter/ip_conntrack_ftp.o: unresolved symbol ip_conntrack_helper_register_Ra22d6eb5 /lib/modules/2.4.20-19.8/kernel/net/ipv4/netfilter/ip_conntrack_ftp.o: unresolved symbol ip_conntrack_expect_related_Rfc718b15 + /sbin/insmod iptable_nat Using /lib/modules/2.4.20-19.8/kernel/net/ipv4/netfilter/iptable_nat.o /lib/modules/2.4.20-19.8/kernel/net/ipv4/netfilter/iptable_nat.o: unresolved symbol ip_ct_find_helper_R2e1adde3 /lib/modules/2.4.20-19.8/kernel/net/ipv4/netfilter/iptable_nat.o: unresolved symbol ip_conntrack_htable_size_R8ef8af4c /lib/modules/2.4.20-19.8/kernel/net/ipv4/netfilter/iptable_nat.o: unresolved symbol ip_ct_gather_frags_Rde4bd92c /lib/modules/2.4.20-19.8/kernel/net/ipv4/netfilter/iptable_nat.o: unresolved symbol invert_tuplepr_R5e68d8a9 /lib/modules/2.4.20-19.8/kernel/net/ipv4/netfilter/iptable_nat.o: unresolved symbol ip_conntrack_module_Rb0361033 /lib/modules/2.4.20-19.8/kernel/net/ipv4/netfilter/iptable_nat.o: unresolved symbol ip_ct_selective_cleanup_R37fa06eb /lib/modules/2.4.20-19.8/kernel/net/ipv4/netfilter/iptable_nat.o: unresolved symbol ip_conntrack_get_Rc412d48a /lib/modules/2.4.20-19.8/kernel/net/ipv4/netfilter/iptable_nat.o: unresolved symbol ip_conntrack_tuple_taken_R4001f92d /lib/modules/2.4.20-19.8/kernel/net/ipv4/netfilter/iptable_nat.o: unresolved symbol ip_conntrack_alter_reply_Rca0ced33 /lib/modules/2.4.20-19.8/kernel/net/ipv4/netfilter/iptable_nat.o: unresolved symbol __ip_ct_find_proto_R9e4bc5ef /lib/modules/2.4.20-19.8/kernel/net/ipv4/netfilter/iptable_nat.o: unresolved symbol ip_conntrack_destroyed_R35dd3854 The result is that my INPUT, OUTPUT, and FORWARD chains remain unchanged (good) but I have no NAT table (bad). Thank you