IP forwarding is the process of forwarding packets from one network to another. Below shows the necessary steps to enable/disable IP forwarding.
Solaris
Enable IP Forwarding
ndd -set /dev/ip ip_forwarding 1
Disable IP forwarding
ndd -set /dev/ip ip_forwarding 0
Check the status
ndd -get /dev/ip ip_forwarding
Linux Kernel
If the output is 1 IP forwarding is enabled,
cat /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
If the output is 0, run this command,
cat 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
Rick Donato is a Network Automation Architect/Evangelist and the founder of Packet Coders.
Latest posts by Rick Donato (see all)
- NETCONF & YANG: Automate Network Configs via Python - April 2, 2026
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- How to Harden Linux SSH: Keys, Fail2ban & Ciphers - March 1, 2026
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