firewall yes or on?

[seloc]

I've been told i should have the MacBook Pro firewall and enable stealth mode on.
The logic is its there so have them on.
YES or NO?
Thanx seloc

 

[oldscribe]

Hi Seloc,

My personal opinion is that having a firewall be it (built in or router based) is a necessity to help protect your Mac and network from hackers who could steal data or harm your machines.
And as you say Mac OS X has it's own built-in firewall, so I would turn it on.

But would defiantly say no to any AV unless you are using bootcamp. Again this is just my personal opinion, others may differ.

 

[seloc]

Thanx oldscribe thats gud enuf for me.

 

[Kaveman]

If your router does this then do it there. No need to have it on on your Mac unless you know why you need it.

Just ensure you are using a Standard Account and have a secure Admin Account and you should be right.

OS X has a Web Server, Parental Controls, and lots of other services, great but you don't turn them on just because it's there. Use these features correctly.

 

[Kaveman]

The firewall in Mac OS X v10.5.1 and later is an Application Firewall, which allows you to control connections on a per-application basis, rather than a per-port basis. This makes it easier to gain the benefits of firewall protection, and helps prevent undesirable applications from taking control of network ports that have been opened for legitimate applications.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1810?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

 

[oldscribe]

Hi Seloc,

Your welcome.

Qoute by Kaveman
If your router does this then do it there. No need to have it on on your Mac unless you know why you need it.

Thank you for adding this, I use a lot of public WiFi, airports etc, so tend to leave my Macs firewall on permanently.