OSX: Mimic Ubuntu IP Masquerading via iptables with ipfw

Posted by Dogbert on Super User See other posts from Super User or by Dogbert
Published on 2012-12-10T22:19:28Z Indexed on 2012/12/13 23:07 UTC
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Good day,

I am attempting to replicate a setup I have between a router and an Ubuntu PC, and have the same setup working on my MacBook (10.6, Snow Leopard).

First, I have a router that has a USB port. When I plug it into my Ubuntu PC, it creates an RNDIS connection, allowing me to connect to the router over the USB cable via an IP connection. When I plug it into my computer via USB, it gets assigned an IP address of 172.16.84.1, and a new adapter appears when I type ifconfig. I can then SSH into the device via ssh [email protected].

When I log in to the device, I flush the routes, then create the default route:

admin@localhost> route -f
admin@localhost> route add default 172.16.84.2

Now, in my Ubuntu machine, I use iptables to enable IP masquerading:

root@Valhalla> sudo iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 172.16.84.2 -j MASQUERADE

Once this is all done, the router has internet access over the USB connection to my PC.

I am trying to replicate this exact setup on my MacBook now (Snow Leopard), but iptables does not exist for OSX, not even a Macports version exists. I have scoured through other questions on StackOverflow that cover the usage of the ipfw command, which apparently works as a drop-in replacement for iptables. However, the syntax is significantly different, and I'm pretty much lost.

Does anyone with some experience with ipfw have some suggestions on how I could accomplish this and create a NAT connection via IP masquerading like I could with my Ubuntu PC?

Thank you for your assistance.

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