How to read iptables -L output?

Posted by skrebbel on Super User See other posts from Super User or by skrebbel
Published on 2012-06-04T06:21:24Z Indexed on 2012/06/04 10:44 UTC
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linux

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iptables

I'm rather new to iptables, and I'm trying to understand its output. I tried to RTFM, but to no avail when it comes to little details like these. When iptables -vnL gives me a line such as:

Chain INPUT (policy DROP 2199 packets, 304K bytes)

I understand the first part: on incoming data, if the list below this line does not provide any exceptions, then the default policy is to DROP incoming packets. But what does the 2199 packets, 304K bytes part mean? Is that all the packets that were dropped? Is there any way to find out which packets that were, and where they came from?

Thanks!

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