I'm not a techie. I have just installed DSL. What do I need to do to ensure security? I have been told:
Use OS X built-in firewall
Buy a "real" software firewall
Buy a router (I only have 1 computer at home)
several of the above
Any help would be appreciated!
Comments
Make sure that you keep up to date with security patches and turn off any services you don't use (luckily this is the default with OS X).
It's better if you use ssh instead of telnet and scp/sftp instead of ftp. You can use the free fugu client or buy Transmit 2 from Panic for OS X, and putty on Windows (also free) to make this easy. Though, if your not the technical type you may not need these. I recommed them though for making the most of your 24/7 connection (remember you need to open port 22 to use ssh/scp).
I will simply upgrade to OS X 2.1 and turn on the firewall. What's interesting is that I have posted this question in other forums and no one has known if the built-in OS X firewall is actually any good. I guess no one who understands these things use it.
Thanks Again!
I use it. It is very good. In fact, I used it back when you had to configure it from the command line and there weren't any 3rd party GUI tools to configure it.
The firewall interface in the System Prefs is very VERY simplistic. There are a myriad of options for the firewall that aren't shown there. If you want a more advanced interface with all the options, go download BrickHouse. It's a free tool that is simply a front-end to configure the built-in firewall.
[ 10-25-2002: Message edited by: Brad ]</p>
If you won't be doing that, stick with the built-in one.