Allows you to restrict the number of parallel connections to a server per client IP address (or client address block). .TP \fB\-\-connlimit\-upto\fP \fIn\fP Match if the number of existing connections is below or equal \fIn\fP. .TP \fB\-\-connlimit\-above\fP \fIn\fP Match if the number of existing connections is above \fIn\fP. .TP \fB\-\-connlimit\-mask\fP \fIprefix_length\fP Group hosts using the prefix length. For IPv4, this must be a number between (including) 0 and 32. For IPv6, between 0 and 128. If not specified, the maximum prefix length for the applicable protocol is used. .TP \fB\-\-connlimit\-saddr\fP Apply the limit onto the source group. This is the default if \-\-connlimit\-daddr is not specified. .TP \fB\-\-connlimit\-daddr\fP Apply the limit onto the destination group. .PP Examples: .TP # allow 2 telnet connections per client host iptables \-A INPUT \-p tcp \-\-syn \-\-dport 23 \-m connlimit \-\-connlimit\-above 2 \-j REJECT .TP # you can also match the other way around: iptables \-A INPUT \-p tcp \-\-syn \-\-dport 23 \-m connlimit \-\-connlimit\-upto 2 \-j ACCEPT .TP # limit the number of parallel HTTP requests to 16 per class C sized \ source network (24 bit netmask) iptables \-p tcp \-\-syn \-\-dport 80 \-m connlimit \-\-connlimit\-above 16 \-\-connlimit\-mask 24 \-j REJECT .TP # limit the number of parallel HTTP requests to 16 for the link local network (ipv6) ip6tables \-p tcp \-\-syn \-\-dport 80 \-s fe80::/64 \-m connlimit \-\-connlimit\-above 16 \-\-connlimit\-mask 64 \-j REJECT .TP # Limit the number of connections to a particular host: ip6tables \-p tcp \-\-syn \-\-dport 49152:65535 \-d 2001:db8::1 \-m connlimit \-\-connlimit-above 100 \-j REJECT