Catalina firewall question

[DThompson55]

I'm trying to set up a server, ninjamsrv from cockos.com. It lets me and my friends jam to music in real-time. I have it configured in the app firewall to accept incoming connections, but it's still blocked. It only works if I turn off the firewall, which I am loath to do. Any suggested work-arounds? The firewall seems almost too simple, maybe I'm missing something?

 

[barbu]

You can probably leave the firewall off if you are not running any other listeners. Is your Mac connected to the internet directly? Or do you have a nat/router device in between?

 

[Taz Mangus]

Did you try to adding the server in Firewall->Firewall Options... as Allow incoming connections?

 

[DThompson55]

Good answers. Thanks Taz, yes that firewall option is set correctly. And thanks barbu, I have a router in between and it's as locked down as it can be. I might turn off the firewall briefly, or I might get a little Raspberry Pi to run this on as a linux bistro just to keep it isolated.

 

[barbu]

If you have a router in line, you most likely need to map the port so that the router knows where to send the incoming traffic from the net. Although it seems like it worked already (?) so it’s not clear. Maybe the service you are trying to use has PMP and can map the port itself (this depends both on the service AND your router supporting auto mapping.