| I'll try to explain some stuff, and dispell some myths...
To begin with, iptables is basically a collection of rules, contained within a table. These rules are used by netfilter within the Linux kernel to examine and filter network traffic. In BSD world, such tools are ipf and pf.
You can configure iptables rulsets at the command line using the command 'iptables', however when you restart the machine the configuration is lost. Therefore, scripts which are run at startup are required to contain your configuration, and set how network traffic is handled. To check your current iptables configuration do:
# iptables -L
Redhat had a gui which created a script in /etc/init.d/ which was called (confusingly) iptables. This script could have been called eric, the name is not important! You set options in the gui, the gui creates the script. At startup the script is run, and sets your iptables rulset to filter your net traffic (and NAT etc.).
Firestarter does the same. You set options in firestarter, firestarter creates the script. At startup the script is run, and sets your iptables rulset to filter your net traffic (and NAT etc.). The script is kept in /etc/firestarter and is called firestarter.sh. An init script in /etc/init.d (or wherever it may be for your distro) can be run at startup, this in turn executes the script /etc/firestarter/firestarter.sh.
There are a number of ways to create iptables scripts. A text editor, a gui like firestarter, a utility such as shorewall, however they all do the same thing, which is to set iptables rule sets which are interperated by the kernel.
I hope this explains things clearly.
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