[Macpartners] Leopard firewall

[Jensen, Scott C.]

Hi,
      Yesterday's thread about the Leopard firewall got me thinking a
little about this - Are most Mac folks here figuring that turning
Leopard's firewall on is necessary? Previously, I would have said the
answer is yes, an active firewall is almost always a good idea, without
hardly a second thought. The fact that Leopard's firewall is turned off
by default (at least on machines upgraded from Tiger - I'm not sure
about newly delivered machines) surprises me. Is Apple suggesting that
the firewall is not really necessary, and if so, are the Mac managers
here comfortable with that? I don't think I am, but given that Leopard's
Firewall is more of a pain than Tiger's (for non-privileged users,
anyway), then I might be willing to consider leaving it off on user's
machines.

      What do y'all think?

                                                       ---SCJ



Allan Doyle wrote:
> Leopard doesn't seem to have an easy way to open up a specific  
> incoming port.
> 
> I want to allow incoming SMTP traffic on port 25 on a Leopard machine  
> (not Leopard Server). Googling and searching the Apple Discussions  
> doesn't offer much help.
> 
> One perhaps drastic solution is to shut off the firewall entirely and  
> use ipfw. I'm happy to do that, but there must be a "Leopard" way...
> 
> 	Allan

-- 
Scott C. Jensen
   Asst. Director for Information Services
     MIT Corporate Relations - Industrial Liaison Program
       Room E38-576      292 Main Street       Cambridge, MA   02139
         617/253-0441      FAX: 617/258-0796     Email: jensen at mit.edu