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##POLL## Anti Virus and Firewall Security

B

BoomAM

Diamond Member
Hi.
Ive been told that theres no need for Norton Firewall on OS-X, cos there a good built in firewall, and that norton firewall causes major problems with OS-X Apps.
And i`ve also been told that theres no point in using a AV program on Mac, cos all it`ll serve to do is prevent my windows machine being infected.

So what are your opinions?

Im swaying towards the "Just AV & use OSX firewall" option.
 
Go to a book store. Pick up an OS X book, but don't buy it unless you want it. Flip to the index and look for a section on firewalling (repeat this until you find a book with info on the firewall). Read the section. If you think it is too tough get the Norton firewall. If you think you can handle it without issues don't worry about the Norton. If you aren't behind a NAT router type device, get Norton until you can get a good grasp on the built in firewall software.

Now where is that option in the poll? 😛
 
Its a hidden option that says "no local bookstore for miles, and im lazy, so just the above options please!" 🙂
 
you already have ipfw installed on the system. there's a even a gui frontend to it, screenie. you do not need a good grasp of it, just turn it on. everything is closed by default.

here's an article on os x firewalling that should help you out. also has some links in it to more comprehensive guis for ipfw.


you should really go to a good mac forum if you want to answer these questions. i suggest the ars mac achaia.
 
Originally posted by: BoomAM
Its a hidden option that says "no local bookstore for miles, and im lazy, so just the above options please!" 🙂
Click to expand...

How many miles? The above options are too limitting. But it looks like you were given a good answer right above this post. And by the sounds of the post of yours I'm quoting, I'd go with something that requires no thinking.
 
I say don't trust the built-in firewall nor the Norton firewall. Get a hardware router instead, they don't cost much more than the Norton software. You can buy them used from the FS/FT forum for next to nothing...
 
Megatomic;
Funnaly enough, i got a LinkSys WAG54G through the post this morning. lol.
It seems reasonably secure, but some detection sites say that a few of the ports are visible, but closed. Which means im pretty safe.
The router is "hard-wired" to my main WinXP rig, and will be having a wireless connection to the iBook. And yes, 128bit WEP is on and SSID BC is off.
 
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Security is a process, not a state of being 😉
Click to expand...


Definately, you can spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars on every concevable security mesure in existance, but if you use "P@ssw0rd" for your password then your screwed. 😛



(BTW anti-virus for OS X is mostly a non-issue. Keep your system religiously up to date and you would be better off. (BUT NOT TOO UP TO DATE!! On OS X it's best to hold off on major OS updates for a couple weeks, maybe even a month, for fixes, Apple hasn't had a good track record when it comes to this) And I am a big fan of keeping a seperate dedicated router/firewall. Software firewalls on a desktop machine is just realy a pain in the neck sometimes. Also if you serve files to windows machines anti-virus is good to have, you don't want to take a infected file from one windows box and transfer it to another windows box and infect that machine, too.)
 
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