Switchers Take Note! New Macs Default to Firewall OFF

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A note to new switchers such as myself. After 4 days with my new Mac, I am finally over the really basic "how do I do ANYTHING with this machine?" culture shock and am poking around more and more deeply into the OS. I discovered with a shock last night that my firewall was set to OFF! Since I didn't configure this (only found it last night) it has to be the default for new Macs.

Now I know that there are not supposed to be ANY virus' out there in the wild for Macs, but coming from the hyper paranoid world of Windows to this new world, and finding that not even basic security steps seem to be standard was quite a shock. I immediately enabled the firewall of course, and even it doesn't really matter, I at least FEEL safer now.

So, new Mac'ers, take note - your firewall is off unless you have enabled it!!
 
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I think that was a change with 10.4.
 
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When I got my first emac G4 running Panther, the firewall was also set to off, so that means someone must have used it beforehand if it is a change within 10.4?
 
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I think this is a good notice especially for switchers like myself that didn't realize it until I played around in System Prefs.

Since I'm behind a router, it doesn't make that much of a difference. Yet for those who aren't, they need to know about this.
 
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wxboss said:
I think this is a good notice especially for switchers like myself that didn't realize it until I played around in System Prefs.

Since I'm behind a router, it doesn't make that much of a difference. Yet for those who aren't, they need to know about this.

A router only prevents incoming though, not outgoing - that is why it is wise to compliment it with a software firewall that will prevent traffic both ways. :)
 
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dont you always have to turn on a firewall when you set up any computer? i recently re-installed xp on my dads conputer and swear i had to set up the firewall
-chris
 
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coach_z said:
dont you always have to turn on a firewall when you set up any computer? i recently re-installed xp on my dads conputer and swear i had to set up the firewall
-chris

I thought so too, as I have said, I know that on my eMac running Panther it was definately off by default.
 

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It's been turned off by default on every version of OSX that I have ever installed.
 
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coach_z said:
dont you always have to turn on a firewall when you set up any computer? i recently re-installed xp on my dads conputer and swear i had to set up the firewall
-chris

i'm pretty sure the built-in firewall is on by default in xp.
 
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kaidomac said:
Little Snitch is a good outgoing access control solution.

yes and for programs 'phoning home', esp. if you dont actually 'own' the program ;)

-chris
 
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dohidied said:
i'm pretty sure the built-in firewall is on by default in xp.
It is in SP2, but SP1 it was off by default.
 

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