Hi, what does the stealth mode in firewall settings do? Should it be turned on? I tried doing a ping test from another computer to test and my mac did not respond to ping request even when the firewall is turned off. Same results when firewall is turned on but stealth settings are turned off. Does the stealth settings do anything other than that?
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What does stealth mode in firewall do?
- Thread starter dacoolest
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In stealth mode, your mac will not respond to ICMP (ping) requests. If your mac is not responding to ping requests when stealth is turned off, there is something external to your mac blocking the requests.
That one is not checked. But still I do not get response to ping request on my mac's external ip address.
With that wording, it makes me think you are trying to ping through a router. If it's important to you that you understand why you can't ping your mac, draw up, or clearly explain the exact physical networking situation.
I was referring to clicking the ? icon to get a description of the stealth mode, in answer to your question. As for the ping response, have you checked your router's settings?
Thanks for the replies. Yes the mac is behind a router. I have a D-link router, although its firewall is disabled at the moment.
Could you please suggest a method to confirm that my mac is secure against hack attacks and similar things? any method to test that its protected against those? Thanks
The chances of an average Mac user being hacked are ridiculously remote. In 4 years on this forum, I've never heard of a single case where someone's Mac was actually hacked. Make sure your firewall is enabled, have a secure WPA2 password on your wireless network, don't voluntarily give physical or remote access to anyone, and you won't have to worry about hacking.
Thanks. Are all firewalls the same? If I enable the router firewall is there any extra protection i can get by enabling the mac firewall? The router I have is a very basic cheap one.
It doesn't hurt to have 2 firewalls enabled. If you use a notebook computer and connect to other networks, you don't know what firewall protection they might have enabled, so it's a good idea to leave your Mac's firewall on, in addition to any router firewall that may be present.
