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Keysmark

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 9, 2010
68
0
I have a new mid 2010 iMac 27" quad core 2.8

Is it necessary to enable the firewall, which is off by default.

If so, what are your settings recommendations.

Thanks
 

iCaleb

macrumors 6502
Apr 26, 2010
343
0
USA
Why not turn it on?
Its free and safe.
So to all the people who say leave it off ****!
Unless the firewall is causing you issues LEAVE IT ON
 

Rivergull

macrumors newbie
Dec 1, 2009
19
0
Firewall

I have an iMac 27" desktop, as well. My Firewall is set to OFF. Didn't even know it. If I now set it to ON, it says I must always know my password OR ELSE all will be LOST forever. That part scares me almost as much as leaving it OFF. It also says that if I turn it ON, it could take quite a while.
 

chown33

Moderator
Staff member
Aug 9, 2009
10,739
8,415
A sea of green
I have an iMac 27" desktop, as well. My Firewall is set to OFF. Didn't even know it. If I now set it to ON, it says I must always know my password OR ELSE all will be LOST forever. That part scares me almost as much as leaving it OFF. It also says that if I turn it ON, it could take quite a while.

I think you've misread something.

FileVault has a warning about needing a password. Which makes sense because it uses a password to encrypt the hard drive. If you encrypt the disk and forget your password (as well as the recovery password), then there's no way to decrypt the data. That's the nature of encryption: without a key, you can't read it.

Firewall is in the segmented control immediately next to FileVault. I see no warning about passwords, and I can turn it on and off with impunity (after clicking Unlock and entering an admin password). There is no delay and no warning dialog for this.

This is on OS X version 10.8.0.

If you want to know the difference between the two features, you can google FileVault, and then google OS X Firewall.
 
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