administration tools for packet filtering and NAT These are the user-space administration tools for the Linux kernel's netfilter and iptables. netfilter and iptables provide a framework for stateful and stateless packet filtering, network and port address translation, and other IP packet manipulation. The framework is the successor to ipchains. netfilter and iptables are used in applications such as Internet connection sharing, firewalls, IP accounting, transparent proxying, advanced routing and traffic control.