The Mac Firewall, would you use it?

I recently got a urgent message from a new "switcher" who had just discovered to her horror that her firewall was off on her new MBP. I reassured her that this is normal but it made me think. Under what circumstances would I want to turn it on? I cant think of any, can you?

Rod Sprague said:

Under what circumstances would I want to turn it on? I cant think of any, can you?

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You would want to use it primarily when you are out in public...signing into publically available WiFi networks.

Folks will say that when you are at home (on your home network) having the Apple firewall on is unecessary (since the home network should be password protected...as well as contain its own firewall).

Call me "weird"...I have the Apple firewall on all the time. I haven't encountered any negative aspects to this...and it saves me from having to remember to turn it on & off depending if I'm at home...or away from home.

Here's a slightly older article (2012) regarding firewall's:

Everything You Need to Know About Using a Firewall | Mac|Life

- Nick

I have the firewall on my MacBook Pro turned on but off on My iMac.
The logic is that my IMac is behind my routers firewall but my MacBook, being mobile may not be.

People often think that firewalls protect them from the outside world. Which is what any off the shelf home router will do. It only allows data in that was requested by an internal source. However most programs these days call home for updates and god knows what else. Since these requests originate from an internal source they are allowed by home routers. In an extreme example, it's how viruses send personal data back to their originator.

I have both the Apple firewall on as well as Little Snitch for alerting me when outbound connections are being requested and by what. This allows me to allow or deny the communication. The Apple firewall is not as handy but does allow you to block outbound traffic of processes, just not as granular and not as user friendly.

MacsWork said:

I have both the Apple firewall on as well as Little Snitch for alerting me when outbound connections are being requested and by what. This allows me to allow or deny the communication. The Apple firewall is not as handy but does allow you to block outbound traffic of processes, just not as granular and not as user friendly.

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Hi MacsWork - is Little Snitch an app or a browser add-on? Have you had any problems w/ the program? Thanks for any information - Dave

Little Snitch is an application. I used it briefly several years ago. At the time I found some of the messages rather cryptic in terms of knowing what was making the request. It looks like they may have addressed this issue.

Apple's default is off and that is how I would leave it using from a home environment, wifi hotspots in public definitely activate.

Slydude said:

Little Snitch is an application. I used it briefly several years ago. At the time I found some of the messages rather cryptic in terms of knowing what was making the request. It looks like they may have addressed this issue.

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Hi Sly.... - so, I assume you no longer are using the app? Does not seem to be in the App Store, so I guess not 'officially approved' by Apple although that is true of a number of excellent apps recommended on the forum. Also, the buy priced is 30 Euros (about $40) - ouch! Dave

Since you are sort of hijacking a thread I'll be brief.

The application is very stable. One reason it might not be in the App Store would be the policies for Apps the Apple has control of, not to mention the 30% cut Apple gets.

There may to much info for the average user but that does not mean it's not good info. You'd be surprised at how many websites have requests to domains that are ad trackers.

Older versions of Little Snitch are free. It's only the newly developed version that costs $29.95. You can still find the older version available for download.

Also, the safest way to use public WiFi (Starbucks, Hotel, Motel, etc) is to use a Virtual Private Network. (VPN) The Apple firewall or the many Windows firewalls do not offer enough protection from sniffers and hackers while using public WiFi.

chscag said:

Older versions of Little Snitch are free. It's only the newly developed version that costs $29.95. You can still find the older version available for download.

Also, the safest way to use public WiFi (Starbucks, Hotel, Motel, etc) is to use a Virtual Private Network. (VPN) The Apple firewall or the many Windows firewalls do not offer enough protection from sniffers and hackers while using public WiFi.

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With you there, I use a VPN pretty much all the time even at home (Indonesia) due to the, dare I say, shonky nature of ISP's and the network here.
I used to use Little Snitch in Australia but stopped when the version I had became incompatible with Mavericks so I'm not sure if the older free versions would still be useable with 10.9.