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<blockquote data-quote="MacInWin" data-source="post: 1535476"><p>@chas_m, the reason for turning on the software firewall is to have what security experts call defense-in-depth or layered defense. Hardware firewalls like the ones in a router do one thing, software firewalls do something slightly different. Having both adds to the overall security of the system. Now, if all you have is one lonely iMac on your home network, the risk is small, but if you add an iPhone, iPad, second iMac, MPB, Windows machine, etc, etc, the risks go up of an internal attack. And if you don't configure your router properly with MAC filtering and control of DHCP, then your neighbor, or someone sitting in a car on your street could become part of your "internal" network. (If you don't think that happens, my brother in law recently moved to a new house and lived off his neighbors wide-open wifi for a week while waiting for his ISP to install his own connections!) At that point, your next line of defense is the software router. But you don't have to take my word for it. You asked for links. I found 14,000,000+ of them, but these came from the first page: <a href="http://www.macinstruct.com/node/165" target="_blank">Here, </a><a href="http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10461321-263.html" target="_blank">here, [URL="http://www.ehow.com/about_5386692_router-firewall-vs-software-firewall.html"]here, </a>[/URL]<a href="http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1810" target="_blank">here, </a><a href="http://netsecurity.about.com/od/toolsutilities/a/Protect-Your-Home-Pc-With-A-Defense-In-Depth-Strategy.htm" target="_blank">here, </a> and <a href="http://osxdaily.com/2010/03/12/how-to-enable-the-firewall-in-mac-os-x/" target="_blank">here.</a> Some of them refer to Windows Firewall, as that is the more prevalent one, but the principles apply to any and all software firewalls.</p><p></p><p>From <a href="http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/do-need-two-firewalls-t3142571.html" target="_blank">here</a> I took this. It explains in the clearest terms the difference between the hardware firewall and the software firewall. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Finally, it is considered good security practice to replace hardware firewalls every couple of years, or at least update the firmware if the vendor provides it. Hackers are constantly attacking the hardware firewall protocols to try to penetrate them and the vendors are constantly closing holes to make the firewalls more effective. But you still need both hardware and software firewalls in that defense-in-depth approach.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MacInWin, post: 1535476"] @chas_m, the reason for turning on the software firewall is to have what security experts call defense-in-depth or layered defense. Hardware firewalls like the ones in a router do one thing, software firewalls do something slightly different. Having both adds to the overall security of the system. Now, if all you have is one lonely iMac on your home network, the risk is small, but if you add an iPhone, iPad, second iMac, MPB, Windows machine, etc, etc, the risks go up of an internal attack. And if you don't configure your router properly with MAC filtering and control of DHCP, then your neighbor, or someone sitting in a car on your street could become part of your "internal" network. (If you don't think that happens, my brother in law recently moved to a new house and lived off his neighbors wide-open wifi for a week while waiting for his ISP to install his own connections!) At that point, your next line of defense is the software router. But you don't have to take my word for it. You asked for links. I found 14,000,000+ of them, but these came from the first page: [URL="http://www.macinstruct.com/node/165"]Here, [/URL][URL="http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10461321-263.html"]here, [URL="http://www.ehow.com/about_5386692_router-firewall-vs-software-firewall.html"]here, [/URL][/URL][URL="http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1810"]here, [/URL][URL="http://netsecurity.about.com/od/toolsutilities/a/Protect-Your-Home-Pc-With-A-Defense-In-Depth-Strategy.htm"]here, [/URL] and [URL="http://osxdaily.com/2010/03/12/how-to-enable-the-firewall-in-mac-os-x/"]here.[/URL] Some of them refer to Windows Firewall, as that is the more prevalent one, but the principles apply to any and all software firewalls. From [URL="http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/do-need-two-firewalls-t3142571.html"]here[/URL] I took this. It explains in the clearest terms the difference between the hardware firewall and the software firewall. Finally, it is considered good security practice to replace hardware firewalls every couple of years, or at least update the firmware if the vendor provides it. Hackers are constantly attacking the hardware firewall protocols to try to penetrate them and the vendors are constantly closing holes to make the firewalls more effective. But you still need both hardware and software firewalls in that defense-in-depth approach. [/QUOTE]
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