Firewall question

BenBKK said:

Hi

Just switched to my first Mac and have a couple of simple questions.

Currently I use a Mac mini 2012 model with an old D-Link DSL-2640T ADSL Router. Am I better off using the hardware firewall in the router or the software firewall in Mac OS X?

I have installed Avast AV but will most likely uninstall that or turn off real-time protection as I can't see myself needing it.

Thanks in advance.

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You don't need Avast AV. You don't need any AV on OSX. There are no viruses in the wild for OSX. As for the firewall, I leave mine off because I do network development all the time, but there's nothing wrong with turning yours on.

BenBKK said:

Am I better off using the hardware firewall in the router or the software firewall in Mac OS X?

I have installed Avast AV but will most likely uninstall that or turn off real-time protection as I can't see myself needing it.

Click to expand...

Using both firewalls will not cause any problems and provides an extra layer of protection.

You don't need any 3rd party antivirus app to keep a Mac malware-free, as long as you practice safe computing, as described in the following link.
If you still want to run antivirus for some reason, ClamXav (which is free) is one of the best choices, since it isn't a resource hog, detects both Mac and Windows malware and doesn't run with elevated privileges. You can run scans when you choose, rather than leaving it running all the time, slowing your system.