Networking & Firewall (Ss/Netstat/Iptables/Nftables/Curl)
Stop letting silent firewall drops drive you mad
🧩 The Challenge
Dealing with a connection that just hangs forever is the absolute worst. You stare at the screen, running curl repeatedly, wondering if the server is dead or if a rogue iptables rule is quietly nuking your packets.
đź’ˇ The Fix
Stop guessing and use the nftables trace feature to watch your packets hit every single rule in real time. It saves you from staring at logs that might not even be enabled.
nft add rule ip filter input ip saddr 1.2.3.4 tcp dport 80 meta nftrace set 1
nft monitor trace⚙️ Why It Works
Setting the nftrace flag marks that specific packet for tracing, and the monitor command dumps exactly which chain and rule handled—or dropped—it. It’s like having a debugger for your network traffic.
🚀 Pro-Tip: Remember to delete your trace rule once you’re done or you’ll fill your terminal buffer with noise.
Linux Tips & Tricks | © ngelinux.com | 9/27/2026