Section 9.3. The Firewall


9.3. The Firewall

If you have a broadband, always-on connection, you're connected to the Internet 24 hours a day. It's theoretically possiblealthough very unlikelyfor some cretin to use automated hacking software to take control of your machine.

If your Mac is connected to a router as described on Section 5.2, its firewall circuitry is probably protecting you. If not, Mac OS X's firewall software can put up a simpler, but effective, barrier .

Figure 9-4. Like Windows XP, Mac OS X comes with a built-in firewall, sparing you the trouble of installing a shareware one like Fire-walk or BrickHouse. Click Start to turn it on.
If you click Advanced, you get even more ways to make your Mac invisible to Internet evildoers . Stealth Mode, for example, makes your Mac not respond to ping. (Pings are "are you there?" signals sent by spammers who are looking for unsuspecting, always-on PCs that they can make part of their junk-mailing network.)


To turn it on, open the Sharing pane of System Preferences. Click the Firewall tab (Figure 9-4), and then click Start. That's all there is to it: You're protected.


Note: If you're using Mac OS X's Internet connection-sharing feature, turn on the firewall only for the first Macthe one that's the gateway to the Internet. Leave the firewall turned off on all the Macs "downstream" from it.And if you have some program that's raising trouble because it can't get through your firewall (an online game, for example), head back to the Sharing pane and click Add. In the dialog box that appears, choose Other from the Port Name menu and fill in the lower fields as instructed in the program's help files. You've now allowed that program's traffic to pass unimpeded through your Mac's firewall.


Switching to the Mac[c] The Missing Manual
Switching to the Mac[c] The Missing Manual
ISBN: 1449398537
EAN: N/A
Year: 2006
Pages: 371

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