Hello - new to Macs so just saying 'hi'

[Plague]

Hello all - Im new to Macs and although ive always used PCs of some sort for about 20 years, have never used a Mac - though I've got myself an intel iMac and have to say I love it.

I had a quick query on security - I was a linux user, and I know that linux was fairly good at closing all the ports on your system and running a firewall in the background. Ive been on my security settings and changed my firewall settings but ive no idea how many ports I have open or whether I can close them. 1) is this something I should be worried about? 2) if it is, what should I do to fix it?

Many thanks all!
Plague

 

[Eidorian]

Services are disabled unless you enable them. You don't have to worry about fun things like ftpd, sshd, or httpd running unless you turn them on in the Sharing Preference Pane.

If you're behind a router and NAT there's even less to worry about. I let my router keep the internet background radiation off my machines.

 

[Plague]

Many thanks for that. Ive run a shields-up test and my first 1056 ports where all returned as 'stealth' and the review advised that my system 'didnt exist on the internet' which I suppose is a good thing. I dont use a router, apart from the wi-fi router given to me by my boradband company - which I dont think has any particular bells and whistles!

I was just wondering how to really lock my system down online - hide the ip address or whatever. I dont like the idea of it being vulnerable online and seem to read all-sorts of stories about people leaving their systems vulnerable. Hope that doesnt sound too over the top!

Cheers,
Plague

 

[mkrishnan]

Actually, for what it's worth, too, until pretty recently, a lot of major desktop Linux distributions did not use firewalls on the same logic. Ubuntu didn't get a firewall until 8.04, AFAIK.

I think the only time it's really worth worrying about is when you're on an open or untrusted network. At home, as Eidorian said, just let your NAT handle it.

EDIT: I don't know any way you can truly hide your IP address completely. It's being sent out by your router, anyways (since your Mac most likely has an intranet IP address). You can hide behind a proxy server or anonymizer, but they still have your IP address.

 

[Eidorian]

Many thanks for that. Ive run a shields-up test and my first 1056 ports where all returned as 'stealth' and the review advised that my system 'didnt exist on the internet' which I suppose is a good thing. I dont use a router, apart from the wi-fi router given to me by my boradband company - which I dont think has any particular bells and whistles!

I was just wondering how to really lock my system down online - hide the ip address or whatever. I dont like the idea of it being vulnerable online and seem to read all-sorts of stories about people leaving their systems vulnerable. Hope that doesnt sound too over the top!

Cheers,
Plague

You're at least going to be showing the IP address that your ISP gives your router. Since it's handling the incoming connections unless you're forward ports or placing a machine in a DMZ you're safe behind NAT.

Your internal machines are using private address ranges anyways. As always watch where you surf on the internet and be a little suspicious of what you install.

That was a lot of acronyms.

 

[Plague]

Many thanks for that! I see I have some reading to do

Ive only installed a few things on this Mac since getting it, mainly desktop publishing software and the odd game and they're all on disk or from the apple store online so I'm assuming they're all ok. I was just bothered about bugs thats all - used Linux because I was under the impression that it was mostly virus and spyware free so was just a little wary of being on a new Mac, which I dont really understand yet

 

[redmeister]

yup not a ton to be worried about but good to hear youre being cautious. congrats on the purchase and welcome to the community

 

[Morod]

Speaking of security

Since you're new, this would be easy for you to do. Do not run day-to-day in an Admin account. Set up a second account without Admin privileges and use that. When it's time to download something it will ask for your username/password. In an Admin account it may just d/l it and you wouldn't know. Not much out there that can hurt OS X, but it's a good habit to get into. Welcome!
Morod