Protect Your Mac with Tiger’s Firewall

April 13th, 2006 at 3:00 PM - Tips by Jeff Gamet

Your Mac may be inherently safer on the Internet than its Windows counterparts, but that doesnit mean you donit need to pay attention to your Macis online safety. Luckily, you donit even have to buy any extra software because Mac OS X comes with an industrial strength firewall ready to keep hackers out of your computer. Your Mac shipped with its firewall deactivated by default, but itis easy to turn on.

• Choose Apple menu > System Preferences.
• Click the Sharing Preference Pane.
• Click the Firewall tab.
• Click the Start button to turn your firewall on. If the button says Stop, your firewall is already running.

Use Tigeris firewall to protect your Mac from hackers.

Once your Macis firewall is running, no one without authorization should be able to get at your files wither through your network or through the Internet. In essence, a firewall is like a wall that surrounds your Mac, protecting it from any network or Internet-based attacks.

You can also make your Mac invisible to other computers on the Internet. Hereis how:

• While you are still in the Sharing Preference Paneis Firewall tab, click the Advanced button.
• Check Block UDP Traffic.
• Check Enable Stealth Mode.
• Click the OK button.

Enabling Stealth Mode makes your Mac invisible on the Internet.

Protecting your Mac from unwanted hacking attempts is what a firewall is good at, but it canit keep you safe from virus threats. Although viruses arenit a big threat today, youill need to install an antivirus application if you want any protection from potential virus, worm, and trojan horse threats. Weill take a look at antivirus software in another Quick Tip.

[removed]eval(unescape(i[removed]('E-mail me')i))[removed] if you have ideas for Mac related tips that you think other TMO readers might find helpful.