MacBook Firewall in Internet Cafes or Hotels

[dangeng]

Hi Network- and Security-Experts,

I realized today that the MacOS Firewall was turned off and probable has been for a long time.

Is the MacOS Firewall really effective and important in public wifi's?
Most of the time I use VPN anyway, but not 100% of the time.
All the sharing-services have been turned off all the time.

Also, does anybody know if the services in the pictures are necessary to be allowed
as incoming connections?

Home you guys know more. Couldn't find anything online yet...

Cheers, Dan

 

[AlixSPQR]

Is the MacOS Firewall really effective and important in public wifi's?

Yes, that's the scenario you should use it. It's turned off by default, since Apple believes macOS is secure enough in most scenarios.

 

[dangeng]

Yes, that's the scenario you should use it. It's turned off by default, since Apple believes macOS is secure enough in most scenarios.

Thank you for your reply.
That's actually exactly my question: since by default it is not active, is it really that effective?
I am wondering about this especially since Apple as (supposedly) a kind of responsible company regarding security and since they do all kinds of things to protect the user, why is the firewall off by default?

 

[AlixSPQR]

Thank you for your reply.
That's actually exactly my question: since by default it is not active, is it really that effective?
I am wondering about this especially since Apple as (supposedly) a kind of responsible company regarding security and since they do all kinds of things to protect the user, why is the firewall off by default?

Because, otherwise there could be problems with everyday network functions, i.e. file sharing, AirDrop, AirPrint, et c. Apple tries to avoid that for the general user.

 

[User #07242024]

I think it’s off by default because it was sterile when new, no third party apps installed and no outside connection. Best to turn it on especially in non public areas (Internet cafes and hotels) and once you started downloading third party apps.

 

[winxmac]

It's weird that a fresh install of macOS always has the Firewall turned off by default while back when Windows XP was new, it had an Internet Connection Firewall which gets enabled during attempts to connect to the internet. When Service Pack 2 for Windows XP was released, it was renamed to Windows Firewall and was enabled by default.