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UFWFirewallPorts6 min read

Configure firewall with UFW

Configure UFW to control incoming and outgoing traffic, allowing only the necessary ports.

UFW (Uncomplicated Firewall) is the simplest way to manage iptables on Ubuntu and Debian. Protect your VPS by allowing only necessary traffic.

Step 1 — Install UFW

On Ubuntu it comes pre-installed. On Debian:

bash
sudo apt install ufw -y

Step 2 — Set default policies

bash
sudo ufw default deny incoming
sudo ufw default allow outgoing

This blocks all incoming traffic and allows all outgoing.

Step 3 — Allow SSH before enabling

Important: If you don't allow SSH before enabling UFW, you will be locked out of the server.

bash
sudo ufw allow 22/tcp

If you changed the SSH port:

bash
sudo ufw allow 2222/tcp

Step 4 — Allow other common services

bash
# HTTP and HTTPS
sudo ufw allow 80/tcp
sudo ufw allow 443/tcp

# MySQL (only if you need remote access)
sudo ufw allow 3306/tcp

# PostgreSQL
sudo ufw allow 5432/tcp

Step 5 — Enable the firewall

bash
sudo ufw enable

Confirm with y. The firewall activates and persists across reboots.

Step 6 — Check status

bash
sudo ufw status verbose

Additional useful commands

bash
# Allow a port range
sudo ufw allow 8000:8100/tcp

# Allow from a specific IP
sudo ufw allow from 203.0.113.50 to any port 22

# Delete a rule
sudo ufw delete allow 3306/tcp

# Reset all rules
sudo ufw reset

Note about Baires Host

Your Baires Host VPS already includes network-level DDoS protection. UFW complements that protection by filtering traffic at the operating system level.

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