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knorv
Asked: 2009-12-24 17:33:43 +0800 CST

How do I enable IP-forwarding in MacOS X?

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What is the correct way to enable IP-forwarding in MacOS X?

More specifically, what is the MacOS X command line quivalent of the following two Linux commands:

echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
iptables -A FORWARD -j ACCEPT
mac-osx

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    You're doing two things there.

    1. Enabling IP forwarding. The OS X equivalent might be:

      sysctl -w net.inet.ip.forwarding=1

      ...but since I don't know exactly what you're trying to do, this might be technically correct but unhelpful.

    2. Adding a largely unnecessary firewall rule. If you haven't changed the default policy for your FORWARD chain (iptables -P FORWARD ...), then this rule does nothing.

      OS X uses the pf firewall tools. Try here

      Prior to 10.7 Lion, OS X used the ipfw firewall tools, which are well documented all over the net. Try here, or here

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