Mac OS X Firewall Settings ....

Hey guys, I was just sitting here wondering if I should do anything about the Firewall stuff on my Macbook Pro. I'm behind a router, and I don't share anything with any computer. What should I have checked on my Firewall, cause there's nothing other than "Network Time".

Should I even bother clicking any of them, and turning them on? It says that the Firewall is OFF. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks guys!!!

 

I set mine to on even though i'm on a router as well. It doesn't really matter. Now if you see your speeds drop because your using both a software and hardware router then I would disable the firewall in system prefs.

The more effective firewall is the router.

 

Basically, you just turn it on and let it run - if you need any exceptions, either tick the box for it if it's listed or create a new exception and tick that box.

As Rodknee said, if you notice speed issues after doing that, you can always just turn it off again and let the router do the firewalling on its own - that should be enough.

 

Turn it on. One thing that really hurt XP pre-SP2 was not having the firewall on by default. Turn it on and leave all of them unchecked unless you need to use that service. Also, while a router is highly recommended and works great, remember that you have a notebook, and unless you take your router with you everywhere you go, you are not always behind it. If you ever connect to a network outside of your home that you don't have full control over, be sure that firewall is on. It won't slow your connection.