Title: 2.4.9 eth0 to vmnet1 bridge with filtering

I use a package called VMware.  VMware has it own bridging solution which does work but, I want to configure my own bridge so that I can filter packets prior to touching the virtual interface.


I have configured the bridge in the past successfully between to real interfaces.  I have never configured packet filtering or a firewall on a bridge.

This is a 2.4.9 kernel without any kernel patches, do I need any?

My script
/sbin/brctl addbr br0
/sbin/brctl addif br0 eth0
/sbin/brctl addif br0 vmnet1

/sbin/ifconfig eth0 0.0.0.0
/sbin/ifconfig vmnet1 128.210.101.246 #vmware required me to give it a real IP 0.0.0.0 would not work?

/sbin/route del -net 128.210.101.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 dev vmnet1 # don't want the route added for this interface

/sbin/ifconfig br0 128.210.101.245 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 128.210.101.255 up

/sbin/route add -net default gw 128.210.101.1


All seems to work fine.  I have fully bridged connectivity to and from the virtual interface, and all vmware instances running on it.



Now to the firewalling part:

I am still using IPChains - my script is to long to easily convert to iptables.


Using just a basic IPChains script to block everything:
/sbin/ipchains -F
/sbin/ipchains -P input DENY
/sbin/ipchains -P output REJECT
/sbin/ipchains -P forward REJECT



This stop all traffic to and from BR0 128.210.101.245 and vmnet1 128.210.101.246 but not to a virtual computer running within vmware with IP 128.210.101.247.

So to recap I have the bridge working but not the firewalling behind the bridge.  Do I need to use iptables instead of ipchains?  Do I need a kernel patch. 

Thank you for your time in advance!

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