In Mac OS 10.5 you’ll notice a completely new firewall menu, and you’ll notice that it is now under the “Security” tab of System Preferences.
So the question was asked, “What is the best way to set up my 10.5 Firewall?”
The word firewall is originally an automotive term that was used as the barrier between the passenger compartment and the engine. The “firewall” in the car was designed to protect the passenger from a fire in the engine.
In the same way your computer firewall is designed to protect you from a security breach. Since these security breaches come in all shapes and sizes (from port exploits and Safari bugs to finding your password and using ARD or SSH).
So naturally the best way to secure your computer with a firewall is to choose the, “Set access for specific services and applications”. If you then leave the following window blank (don’t give access to any programs), you’re pretty safe and that is the safest way to use your firewall.
Using this setting you would need to set every program that you want to allow an incoming connection from. Keep in mind that this includes programs like iMovie when it tries to connect to YouTube to share videos. Also you would need to allow your printer drivers to accept connections if you use printer sharing.
If you choose to use this setting, which is the most secure, realize that when you choose to block everything, you’ll probably run into unexpected problems. If that happens, first check your firewall and see if that is causing the problem before emailing your technical support!
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