IPFW
The facts below are what the maker publishes about IPFW, checked and dated. Our editors have not written about it yet.
Plans and prices
From IPFW's own pricing page, checked 11 Oct 2026.
| Plan | Price | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| IPFW | Free | FreeBSD firewall utility; no paid plans stated |
The facts
Each one read from IPFW's own pages, with the date it was checked.
What it does
- Availability
- FreeBSD is available free of charge with source code.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Configuration files
- Rules may be read from a file and optionally piped through a preprocessor such as cpp or m4.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Connection alerts
- Yeschecked 22 Sep 2026
- Filtering
- Rules can filter on IPv4 and IPv6 protocols, addresses and ports, direction, interfaces, IP and TCP header fields, and other packet attributes.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Logging
- Matching packets can be logged to syslog, the ipfw0 pseudo-interface, or a routing socket.checked 11 Oct 2026
- NAT
- The utility supports in-kernel NAT and stateful or stateless IPv6/IPv4 translation, including NAT64 and CLAT.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Operational caution
- The manual warns that a mismatch between the userland world and kernel can break the ipfw ABI and prevent adding rules, potentially affecting booting.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Outbound control
- advancedchecked 22 Sep 2026
- Project
- FreeBSD is developed and maintained by a large community.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Purpose
- ipfw is the user interface for controlling the FreeBSD firewall, dummynet traffic shaper and packet scheduler, and in-kernel NAT services.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Rule direction
- bothchecked 22 Sep 2026
- Rule management
- Rules can be organized into 32 sets that can be enabled, disabled, swapped, or moved for ruleset manipulation.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Stateful firewall
- Rules using keep-state, record-state, limit, or set-limit can create dynamic rules for stateful behavior.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Traffic shaping
- The dnctl pipe, queue, and sched commands configure traffic shaping and packet scheduling.checked 11 Oct 2026
Money
- Free plan
- Yeschecked 22 Sep 2026
Where it runs
- Platform
- IPFW is documented as a FreeBSD system utility; the FreeBSD project provides images for supported architectures and cloud vendors.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Supported platforms
- FreeBSDchecked 22 Sep 2026
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