Do Macs need firewalls and other types of security stuff?

[rumguy]

How necessary is a firewall? What does it do exactly?

[physioex]

1. May not be necessary...

If you are connected to the Internet constantly such as a broadband connection. You have left your computer exposed to be hacked by someone. A firewall would keep people from accessing your computer via the internet. But it won't protect you against viruses.


New Apple Computers are based on a Unix system which is inherently more stable and secure than a windows based system. A firewall may not be necessary. But I would like others to also weigh in....

[Kholst]

2. mac's main superiority in security

is the same as their main disadvantage in other areas. Because there are fewer, people don't make things for them. That goes for hardware, software, and viruses.

Firewalls are especially important with an always-on connection, but not a bad idea with a dial-up either.

[UTUSN]

3. (Not About Macs) I Didn't Know XP *Has* a Firewall

This computer guru said on the radio that EVERYBODY needs a firewall. Dutifully, I bought Norton. With the stuff back home, the manual said that, to install, the XP firewall needed to be disabled so as not to conflict. Seems like a SECOND one, at least, was not needed.

[rumguy]

4. That's it - I wonder if a lot of this firewall stuff is just hype

[UTUSN]

16. Another Thing: To Get the Salon.Com Day Pass

the "Ad blocker" from the Norton firewall needs to be disabled: You have to be able to get an ad to get the day pass.

[oostevo]

8. Don't trust XP's firewall ... ever ...

It is truly inadequate to protect you from all but the most unskilled attacker/naughty program. Norton (Symantec) make good firewalls, but ZoneAlarm can be had for free and it's just as good (search Google).

Really, though, a hardware firewall is the optimum solution. They're a bit pricey, though.

[MajorFlaw]

5. Even with 10.3, I wouldn't go online without a firewall.

Best I've found is Net Barrier from Intego. Norton stuff doesn't work well with Macs.

[rumguy]

6. What if you use a dial up?

What's your basis for this warning?

[MajorFlaw]

12. The same reason as for broadband: There are malicious folks out there,

most are just malicious commercial enterprises and a few are malicious evil people. Any internet connection exposes you to outside intrusion. If you don't actively do what you can to protect yourself, you will eventually find yourself with problems. Even though Macs are much safer than Wintel boxes, I would strongly suggest a good firewall with your own set of rules AND a hardware router/firewall. If you want to get an idea of what I mean, go to www.grc.com, click on "shields up", and test "all service ports". See what they find. If you are not completely in "stealth" mode, you are asking for problems.

[Liberal Classic]

9. Symmantec is discontinuing Norton Utilities for Mac I heard

Though they will still produce NAV for Mac.

[Mika]

14. I wouldn't use Norton utilities on a Mac if they paid me!

Had to reformat and reinstall OS X after Norton got done with the resource forks and invisible files. Especially if you have a dual boot Mac (OS 9.2 & 10.x)

Techtool & Diskwarrior are the defacto Mac utilities (not incl firewalls).

[Liberal Classic]

15. That's awful

It used to be a pretty good package. I still boot to OS 9 now and again, too.

[Wonk]

7. Macs come with a software firewall built into the OS

It can be found under "System Preferences" - > "Sharing" -> "Firewall" where you can configure which ports you want open to whatever network you're connected to and which you want closed.

Having a separate hardware firewall/router as well doesn't hurt, though.

[rumguy]

10. fascinating

thanks

[LowerManhattanite]

11. Macs do indeed come with a firewall built into OS 10.3 (Panther)...

...but if you are using broadband, merely get yourself a network router (about $39). This acts as a reasonably impenetrable hardware firewall in addition to the software firewall incorporated into the operating system. If you are using dial-up, the software firewall should be enough as that in combination with high risk/low reward ratio of hacking data via dial-up makes it less than worthwhile for hackers.

Hope this helps,
LM

[Liberal Classic]

13. Of course

To answer the general question, I would say yes. If you have cable modem or a subscriber line I would highly recommend getting one of the consumer firewall/router boxes to go with it, whether you run Windows, or Mac, or Linux. It will save you a world of trouble. If you're on dial-up I still recommend getting a firewall software package, though newest releases of OS X and Windows will probably come with one as part of the base package. Linux firewalling is beyond the scope of this document.

The firewall is named after the firewall in your car, which protects you from the engine compartment.

The idea is that you run a program that intercepts all network traffic coming to and leaving your computer, and if that traffic doesn't conform to a pre-defined set of rules it is not allowed to pass. Running without any firewall means that when you computer is connected to the internet, it can be accessed by nearly anyone in the world. There are unfortunately, a large number of malicious people who would like nothing better than to see your machine injected with a trojan program or keystroke logger or things like that. So, in order to prevent your comptuer from being poked and prodded, you run this firewall software. It intercepts traffic coming in, and if it is not something expected it drops it on the floor. The malicious person is none the wiser. Conversely, if you have a virus or trojan on your computer and you are running a personal firewall, generally you will see a popup window asking you "Would you like program MAKE MONEY FAST XXX to access the Internet?" This sort of thing can clue you in that you need to run your virus program.

Apple Macintosh computers are no less vunderable to hostile programs than Windows or Linux are. Windows being the biggest target bears the brunt of such maliciousness, but just because you have a Mac doesn't mean you are safe. Be sure to run the security updates as you receive them, this is a big help. However, be aware that sometimes this isn't enough. Some bugs may still exist or the update might not actually fix the problem. If you have one of these firewalls in place, and it is set up properly, there are far fewer things anyone in the outside world can do to your computer.

Also note, that if you download and run software from random sites, this can totally bypass any security system you may have in place. I can't tell you how many times I've seen someone run McAfee or Nortons, ZoneAlarm as well as SpyBot and AdAware, and still they download and install things from heaven knows where and wonder why they get infected. No one practices safe computing these days.