Overview

This article explains the firewall configuration steps in order to ensure the proper operation of Lexmark Printers on the various Linux Distributions.

Explanation

The Lexmark Printer drivers require a number of communication ports to be open to allow communication with the printer over Wireless, Wired, or even over USB connections.

Solution

Command line for IPTABLES

1. Open a terminal

2. Type 'su' (without quotes), and press Enter. NOTE: You will have to enter the root password.

3. The following two command lines will open the port 5353 for incoming and outgoing connections:

• iptables -I INPUT -p udp -m udp --sport 5353 -j ACCEPT

• iptables -I OUTPUT -p udp -m udp --dport 5353 -j ACCEPT

NOTE: These steps will work on most distributions configured with IPTABLES. There is no common command to make these rules persistent.

For more help on IPTABLES, please visit the webpage: http://www.netfilter.org/.

Command line for Uncomplicated Firewall (ufw)

Simply open the console and enter the following:

• ufw allow 5353

Command line for Red Hat Fedora

Open the console and enter the following to save the IPTABLES configuration permanently:

• service iptables save

Firestarter

• Manually edit /etc/firestarter/inbound/allow-service and /etc/firestarter/outbound/allow-service configuration files with a text editor.

The Configuration file "allow-service" should contain the following line:

Mdns, 5353, everyone

Explanation:

• Service name : mdns

• Port : single or range of ports (For Lexmark Printers: 5353)

• Source: can either be

  • * everyone (For Lexmark Printers)
  • * network/netmask (e.g. 192.168.0.1/255.255.255.0)
  • * CIDR notation (e.g. 192.168.0.1/24)

• Use the Graphical User Interface (GUI).

Step	Action	Image
1	Go to System > Administration menu and launch Firestarter.
2	Click Policy tab and select "Inbound traffic policy".
3	Right-hand click on the "Allow service" area, and click on "Add rule".
4	In the rule window, type 5353 in "Port", select source as "Anyone", then click "Add".
5	Select "Outbound traffic policy", if "Restrictive by default", then right click on the "Allow service" area, and click "Add rule".
6	In the rule window, do the same as Step 4.
7	Click "Apply policy" for the changes to take effect.

For more help on Firestarter, please visit the webpage: http://www.fs-security.com/.

Applies to:

• OpenSUSE 11.0
• OpenSUSE 11.1
• Ubuntu 8.04 LTS
• Ubuntu 8.10
• Fedora 10

All products with Linux support based on the Linux Compatibility Page.

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