Should "Stealth Mode" be enabled or disabled under Firewall settings on MacOS?

[Benz63amg]

Its off by default, Is it not good to enable that feature to make the computer more secure?

 

[casperes1996]

I mean. It doesn’t really make all that big a difference security wise, honestly. It makes it harder to detect that a device exists on a certain IP so might hide you from a scan, but has 0 impact on the security once your IP is known like in a targeted attack or if you already establish a connection to something.
And it’s kinda rude - Like if someone knocks on your door just hiding under the sofa instead of answer saying you’re not interested. (That’s kinda a joke but it is also kind of true, but don’t be dissuaded, it’s fine turning on Stealth mode, you won’t be considered rude for it)

 

[Benz63amg]

I mean. It doesn’t really make all that big a difference security wise, honestly. It makes it harder to detect that a device exists on a certain IP so might hide you from a scan, but has 0 impact on the security once your IP is known like in a targeted attack or if you already establish a connection to something.
And it’s kinda rude - Like if someone knocks on your door just hiding under the sofa instead of answer saying you’re not interested. (That’s kinda a joke but it is also kind of true, but don’t be dissuaded, it’s fine turning on Stealth mode, you won’t be considered rude for it)

Thanks for the explanation, I’ll enable it then. Enabling it doesn’t slow down my internet or have any negative effect on the network speed right?

 

[casperes1996]

Thanks for the explanation, I’ll enable it then. Enabling it doesn’t slow down my internet or have any negative effect on the network speed right?

No but it will slow down the speed of other people doing port scans over your IP. Arguably not your problem, but that’s why I made the analogy with not answering your door at home. To flesh out the analogy, normally if I knock on your Mac’s door with the firewall on, your Mac will tell me “No, not open“. If you enable stealth mode, I will just sit there and wait until my connection times out and gives up on getting a response, your Mac will never explicitly tell me it’s unavailable. So instead of getting an immediate response I’ll have to wait for my own device to just make the assumption it will never get a reply.
Just to be clear this just applies to closed ports. If you have an open port that receives incoming connections maybe for a game or whatever, idk, that will run at normal speed both for you and the connecting device - it’s just the rejection of inbound connections that will be slowed down for other people trying to connect to your closed ports

 

[Benz63amg]

No but it will slow down the speed of other people doing port scans over your IP. Arguably not your problem, but that’s why I made the analogy with not answering your door at home. To flesh out the analogy, normally if I knock on your Mac’s door with the firewall on, your Mac will tell me “No, not open“. If you enable stealth mode, I will just sit there and wait until my connection times out and gives up on getting a response, your Mac will never explicitly tell me it’s unavailable. So instead of getting an immediate response I’ll have to wait for my own device to just make the assumption it will never get a reply.
Just to be clear this just applies to closed ports. If you have an open port that receives incoming connections maybe for a game or whatever, idk, that will run at normal speed both for you and the connecting device - it’s just the rejection of inbound connections that will be slowed down for other people trying to connect to your closed ports

Thank you, under the security setting I picked for MacOS to only accept incoming connections for built in apps. The other setting was for built in apps and identified third party apps.

in regards to the Adblock Extension I’m Google Chrome,I have the default filter sets enabled but do you know if “EasyPrivacy” filter set should be enabled?

 

[casperes1996]

Thank you, under the security setting I picked for MacOS to only accept incoming connections for built in apps. The other setting was for built in apps and identified third party apps.

in regards to the Adblock Extension I’m Google Chrome,I have the default filter sets enabled but do you know if “EasyPrivacy” filter set should be enabled?

No idea about those filter lists, no, sorry. I mean you could always just enable it and then disable it if you find that it blocks more than you want.

To be honest I don't personally bother much with adblockers and such. Don't even have the firewall turned on on my Macs - Most request die at the router anyway