Creating Custom Firewall Ports

February 20th, 2007 at 2:00 PM - Tips by Jeff Gamet

The firewall thatis built into Mac OS X does a good job of blocking unwanted network traffic from finding its way into your Mac. But if you need a specific type of data to travel in and out of your Mac, and the firewall is blocking it, itis time to roll up your sleeves and open the port yourself.

First, a little back story on network ports. Network ports are a kind of virtual port that different types of data travel through. The data that passes through your firewall is assigned to a specific port, and each port has a unique number. For example, Web-based data, like the information that tells your Web browser how to display the sites you visit travels on port 80. Port 25 is commonly used for email.

If your firewall is blocking a specific port you need, any information traveling through that port will be blocked. Keeping with our Web data example, if port 80 is blocked, you wonit be able to view Web pages.

Now back to our regularly scheduled Quick Tip. When your Macis firewall is active, many applications that need to send data on a closed port will either ask you to manually open the port, or will open the port for you. If you need to manually open a port, hereis what to do:

Start by finding out which port you need to open. If an application asks you to manually open a firewall port, it should also give you the associated number. If not, check the applicationis documentation, or for the ambitious, you can check the IANA port number Web page. Once you have the port number, itis time to modify your firewall settings. For this example, weill assume that FileMaker Pro needs port 5003 open.

• Launch System Preferences. You can find it by selecting Apple menu > System Preferences.
• Click the Sharing.
• Click the Firewall tab.
• Click the New button in the Firewall pane.

Click the New button to create a network port.

• Choose Other from the Port Name pop-up menu.

Select Other to make a custom port.

• Enter the port number you want to open in the TCP Port Number(s) field. In our example, thatis 5003. Donit worry about the UDP Port Number(s) field.

Enter the port number and a name.

• Enter a name that makes sense to you in the Description field. I typed "FileMaker Pro."
• Click OK.

This works only for firewall ports on your own Mac. If there is a network-based firewall blocking traffic, it may still prevent any information from passing out of your local network to the Internet. If you need network ports opened on a firewall thatis between your Mac and the Internet, and you arenit comfortable or authorized to make those changes, contact your IT department or favorite Mac consultant.

If you arenit sure if your Macis firewall is turned on, check out this Quick Tip on activating the firewall in Mac OS X.

This Quick Tip was adapted from The Designeris Guide to Mac OS X Tiger.

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