A simple question about Firewalls on Macs

Is it normal that the firewall is turned off on new Macs? Apparantly, my firewall is turned off? Should I turn it on?

if you are behind a router at home there is really no need for a software firewall.

yes turn it on. Even if you're behind a router.

I just read that it's off on default. That's weird. I guess the guys at Apple are pretty damn confident, huh?

They should change. At the moment however, OS X comes with very few ports open by default and you don't run as root.

That combined with no known viruses (not trojans) in the wild has probably led to a little bit of complacency.

Alright, I've set it to block pretty much every single incoming thing. That oughta do it.

Little Snitch is a great program to ensure/control installed apps don't "phone home" as well.

  Joyrex said:

Little Snitch is a great program to ensure/control installed apps don't "phone home" as well.

hmmm.... could you explain this more ?

  Joyrex said:

Little Snitch is a great program to ensure/control installed apps don't "phone home" as well.

Really? Because I've been hearing a lot about this program but I've been kinda suspicious of it. Is it one of those applications that need to run in the background all the time?

  Velazquez said:

  Joyrex said:

Little Snitch is a great program to ensure/control installed apps don't "phone home" as well.

 

 

hmmm.... could you explain this more ?

It basically watches all your apps, and if one tries to make a connection, it alerts you, and gives you the option to allow or deny it access, on a one-time, temporary, or permanent basis. You can read more about it here:

http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html

  Squee said:

  Joyrex said:

Little Snitch is a great program to ensure/control installed apps don't "phone home" as well.

 

Really? Because I've been hearing a lot about this program but I've been kinda suspicious of it. Is it one of those applications that need to run in the background all the time?

Yes, it runs in the background, but takes up very little resources.

I find little snitch to be a big pain in the ass though.

Even when you set it to the lowest level of invasiveness it's still kind of in your face about things...

  chenGOD said:

I find little snitch to be a big pain in the ass though.

Even when you set it to the lowest level of invasiveness it's still kind of in your face about things...

Really? Once it "learns" the apps on your system, I really don't get bothered by it...

i can recommend little snitch

annoying at times but well efficient