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Do I need a firewall?

K

kaizer

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 23, 2003
85
0
Malaysia
Hello there.

I'm new to Mac. I know there's a built in firewall in OS X but is it sufficient? I mean, for example in Windows XP there's a some sort of built in firewall, but it's sloppy and most people tends to get one installed in their machine.

So my question is, do I need one or the built in firewall good enough? When I run Win98 on my old PC, I have downloaded a firewall and it beeps whenever it see something suspicious. The one on the Mac doesn't beep... am I safe to assume that it will take care of me?

The reason for asking this is that I frequent wireless hotspot alot and I don't want some dude to access my iBook without my permission.

Sorry for asking a dumb question, but I'm still a newbie...

Thanks!
 
The firewall in OS X is very good. If your looking for more configuration options check out brickhouse. But the OS X firewall is more than enough.
 
sunshield is pretty good but if you're a n00b to the computer world, then i suggest that you should go with the built in firewall in OS X. it's pretty good but if you're gonna share libraries using iTunes or send files to people via iChat, you need to open those ports afterwards.
 
What you really need is an IDS
Intrusion Detection System
Henwen (freeware) is very good
You can use it in combo with NetBarrier.
 
I've never known anyone who's been attacked over the net. I used to use Norton but that was kinda stupid. I have my OSX one on sometimes but it doesn't seem needed at all.
 
Never seen anyone attacked over the net? Hard to believe.

I've witnessed many unidentified port scans and I've seen several PC friends computers attacked and turned into worm spreaders. Mac = Security through obscurity!

Granted, the firewall in OS X is fairly decent, especially when compared to the stuff Windows users end up putting on their computers. But I almost always recommend that people use external internet gateways that include firewall and NAT capabilities. These features can protect you from most anything that comes your way and you don't have to worry about the configuration of any of the computers on your network. NetGear makes some of the better units currently.
 
thank you for all those that replied.

I've downloaded Brickhouse. There's a choice of 'firewalling' (if there's such a word) either the ethernet, Airport and some other connections. I've just checked all options for the Airport tab, will it affect my wireless surfing session in some hotspots?

Also, what are the downside of checking all the options?

ubergeek... what's a n00b?

I'm a newbie, sorry.
 
The only slight hiccup I have come across with the OSX firewall is it slows down your boot up time - by up to 5 seconds! Kind of a drag huh?
 
I don't see firewalls as necessary to the ordinary consumer, but everyone has their own security issues and if you see it as necessary then I would just use the firewall function in OS X.

(in your network control panel? [Sorry I don't have OS X;)])
 
Maybe not for the ordinary Mac customer, but Windows machines MUST be protected by something, whether its ZoneAlarm or a firewall cable router.

Without it, Windows machines are almost guaranteed to be port scanned, broken into, loaded with a worm, and set to port scanning other computers. This is done by automated scripts written by script kiddies to take advantage of known holes in Windows. Code Red is a great example of this type of infection.
 
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