Change firewall settings via terminal

Question

hi,
I've got an old Powerbook that has a broken screen. Luckily I can access all my files and also ssh into the computer. Is it possible to open the firewall port 7001 via the command-line so I can use something like Desktop Transporter?
Thanks for any reply.
Gert
iBook G4   Mac OS X (10.4.5)  

Answer 1

Yes, of course. First question, though: why not take the firewall down altogether?
The thing is, ipfw uses sets of rules, and the order is significant, so it's not just adding a rule, it's where you add the rule. So, for example, if I see:
<pre>
$ sudo ipfw list
02000 allow ip from any to any via lo*
02010 deny ip from 127.0.0.0/8 to any in
02020 deny ip from any to 127.0.0.0/8 in
02030 deny ip from 224.0.0.0/3 to any in
02040 deny tcp from any to 224.0.0.0/3 in
02050 allow tcp from any to any out
02060 allow tcp from any to any established
02065 allow tcp from any to any frag
02070 allow tcp from any to any dst-port 22 in
02080 allow tcp from any to any dst-port 548 in
02090 allow tcp from any to any dst-port 427 in
02100 allow tcp from any to any dst-port 80 in
02110 allow tcp from any to any dst-port 427 in
02120 allow tcp from any to any dst-port 443 in
02130 allow tcp from any to any dst-port 21 in
02140 allow tcp from any to any dst-port 139 in
12190 deny tcp from any to any
65535 allow ip from any to any
</pre>
Obviously, you need to add your rule before the blanket deny rule, so enter:
$ sudo ipfw add 02150 allow tcp from any to any dst-port 7001 in
Or you could do a rule like:
$ sudo ipfw add 02005 allow ip from ME to any in
Where ME is your IP address (or MAC yo:ur:ma:ca:dd:re:ss) to allow all access from your computer. Unwise because both are easily spoofed, but you can delete it as soon as you're done:
$sudo ipfw delete 02005