Hi Jozsef I just realized that I now think I understand what you meant by "But why do you specify the protocol?" I could have written the rule like iptables -A -m state --state ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT Best Regards and sorry for the misunderstandings, Frank Mayer UNIX Systemadministration ---------------------------------------------------- KNAPP Systemintegration GmbH Waltenbachstrasse 9 8700 Leoben, Austria ---------------------------------------------------- Phone: +43 3842 805-921 Fax: +43 3842 82930-921 frank.mayer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx www.knapp.com