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Firewall in leopard show firefox blocked, but it's working...

yetanotherdave

yetanotherdave

macrumors 68000
Original poster
I just had a look at my firewall settings, all the programs I would expect have "allow" set for incoming connections..
Except Firefox. it's blocked. Except that it's my main browser at the moment, I'm using it to post this!
I've heard reports of leopard's firewall being next to useless, but if something is set to block, and it allows connections, it's not only useless, that's boldly marching into the dangerous territory.
Am I misunderstanding this, or is this just broken.
 

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It means that it has blocked any incoming connections, but it doesn't mean incoming data. When you browse the internet, your computer makes a connection to the web server, and then data is transferred back and forth along that connection. It's like you ringing a friend, and then the two of you talking back and forth during the phone call.

When the Firewall says that incoming connections to Firefox are blocked, it means that Firefox can't accept any incoming connection requests from the outside, which hopefully stops malware trying to pry its way onto your machine.
 
Everything is working perfectly well, it's just the way Arnel explained it. Since a connection has a well established meaning in the networking world, I doubt this thing is badly mislabeled.
 
Arnel is exactly right, but since you aren't running a web server you don't have to block it in your firewall. There is nothing to block.
 
that might be the case, in my experience with windows firewalls and others such as zonealerm, its always blocking "outgoing request" by default.

I guess OSX "firewall" is a different idea, maybe it should use another term just to avoid confusing users.
 
clevin said:
that might be the case, in my experience with windows firewalls and others such as zonealerm, its always blocking "outgoing request" by default.

I guess OSX "firewall" is a different idea, maybe it should use another term just to avoid confusing users.
Click to expand...

Huh? Firewalls are generally used to block unsolicited incoming requests based on the configuration. If they blocked outgoing by default, you wouldn't be able to do anything network related.

I think you meant to compare default-deny vs. default-allow strategies, which is different.
 
kingjr3 said:
Huh? Firewalls are generally used to block unsolicited incoming requests based on the configuration. If they blocked outgoing by default, you wouldn't be able to do anything network related.
Click to expand...
you would, they just present a message for you to allow the app to use internet.

Its a common practice in most windows firewall apps.

Also Im not sure if your definition is accurate and up to date.
 
Arnel said:
It means that it has blocked any incoming connections, but it doesn't mean incoming data. When you browse the internet, your computer makes a connection to the web server, and then data is transferred back and forth along that connection. It's like you ringing a friend, and then the two of you talking back and forth during the phone call.

When the Firewall says that incoming connections to Firefox are blocked, it means that Firefox can't accept any incoming connection requests from the outside, which hopefully stops malware trying to pry its way onto your machine.
Click to expand...

Right, so in this context, incoming connection stops data transferred initiated from outside sources?

When I say its confusing, I have worked in an IT infrastructure job for about 4 years now, so generally know what I'm talking about, and the meaning of this is not obvious to me.
 
DrAtheist said:
Right, so in this context, incoming connection stops data transferred initiated from outside sources?

When I say its confusing, I have worked in an IT infrastructure job for about 4 years now, so generally know what I'm talking about, and the meaning of this is not obvious to me.
Click to expand...

It refers to IP connections (TCP, UDP for example). Connection has a very specific definition. Going back to a previous post, I will repeat: Firefox opens a connection to macrumors, not the other way around. Data will flow both directions on the connection, but the firewall in this case is only set up to block INCOMING connections, and in the case of Firefox, there is no incoming connection under normal use.

Let's assume for a minute that someone gave you a bogus trojan Firefox. You could be using it, and the bad guy could try and open a connection inbound to your faux-Fox. That would be blocked by the firewall.
 
bplein said:
It refers to IP connections (TCP, UDP for example). Connection has a very specific definition. Going back to a previous post, I will repeat: Firefox opens a connection to macrumors, not the other way around. Data will flow both directions on the connection, but the firewall in this case is only set up to block INCOMING connections, and in the case of Firefox, there is no incoming connection under normal use.

Let's assume for a minute that someone gave you a bogus trojan Firefox. You could be using it, and the bad guy could try and open a connection inbound to your faux-Fox. That would be blocked by the firewall.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it makes sense now, but it's not realy a typical apple user friendly way of putting it.
 
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