Firewall settings - open ? or closed ?

[aicul]

Hello, I was just browsing thru the specs of my mac in SystmeProfiler and came across the frewall settings. They are :

Firewall Settings: Mode: Allow all incoming connections

Does this mean that anyone with a slightly deviant and/or mischievous intentions is capable of accessing my mac ?

I have deactivated all access in preferences/sharing, but the firewall setting remain unchanged

 

[belvdr]

If you are behind a home firewall of sorts, such as a consumer router, then only people on your local network have access to those ports. If you visit a public Wi-Fi hotspot, then it opens to more people.

For most everyone, editing your firewall settings to disallow all incoming connections is a wise idea.

 

[aicul]

I thought I had done just that, in preferences/sharing.

Do I understand correctly that, that is not the case?

How does one go about closing unnecessary open ports?

All advice welcome

 

[belvdr]

You're not closing ports, just protecting them.

System Preferences -> Security -> Firewall. Turn it on. If you want to block all incoming connections, click Advanced, and then check "Block all incoming connections" and hit OK.

Note, for applications such as Skype, you'll need to open those ports.

 

[aicul]

Guess I could have dug deeper into preferences.

So I set "only essential services" and activated the log file. Guess I will decide in a weeks time or so what to do further.

Thanks for the input, most welcome

 

[belvdr]

No problem. Let us know if you have further questions.