DSL - Firewalls and Virus Protection

Tonight I am going to try to hook-up DSL to our new G5. (My old iMac used dial-up) First, I hear about firewalls, but don't really know what they are. All I know is that they keep out the "bad guys". What are they and do I need one? What about virus protection? If needed what program is recommended? Any other pointers that you think I will need for setting up the DSL is appreciated.
After reading previous postings I think that I will use a wired DSL hook up even though I have the wireless keyboard and mouse.

Mandy: A. Firewall = yes; B. Virus protection = no.
To activate your firewall protection after you successfully get your DSL activated, go to system preferences>Internet and Networking> Sharing> Firewall. You simply click to activate and you are good to go. You can fine tune it if that suits you. Firewalls act as armor against people gaining access/control of your computer. [It won't keep viruses out, but see below]. Since you used to have dial-up, firewalls weren't as important since you logged off after each use. Not so high speed connections, which remain on unless you shut off your computer.
The general consensus is that an anti-virus program is not needed for macs.

Similar Messages

How do I unistall avg cleaner and virus protection ?

How do I unistall avg cleaner and virus protection ? I tried to re-install then unistall, and that did not work . any advise please.

Uninstalling Software: The Basics
Most OS X applications are completely self-contained "packages" that can be uninstalled by simply dragging the application to the Trash. Applications may create preference files that are stored in the /Home/Library/Preferences/ folder. Although they do nothing once you delete the associated application, they do take up some disk space. If you want you can look for them in the above location and delete them, too.
Some applications may install an uninstaller program that can be used to remove the application. In some cases the uninstaller may be part of the application's installer, and is invoked by clicking on a Customize button that will appear during the install process.
Some applications may install components in the /Home/Library/Applications Support/ folder. You can also check there to see if the application has created a folder. You can also delete the folder that's in the Applications Support folder. Again, they don't do anything but take up disk space once the application is trashed.
Some applications may install a startupitem or a Log In item. Startupitems are usually installed in the /Library/StartupItems/ folder and less often in the /Home/Library/StartupItems/ folder. Log In Items are set in the Accounts preferences. Open System Preferences, click on the Accounts icon, then click on the LogIn Items tab. Locate the item in the list for the application you want to remove and click on the "-" button to delete it from the list.
Some software use startup daemons or agents that are a new feature of the OS. Look for them in /Library/LaunchAgents/ and /Library/LaunchDaemons/ or in /Home/Library/LaunchAgents/.
If an application installs any other files the best way to track them down is to do a Finder search using the application name or the developer name as the search term. Unfortunately Spotlight will not look in certain folders by default. You can modify Spotlight's behavior or use a third-party search utility, EasyFind, instead.
Some applications install a receipt in the /Library/Receipts/ folder. Usually with the same name as the program or the developer. The item generally has a ".pkg" extension. Be sure you also delete this item as some programs use it to determine if it's already installed.
There are many utilities that can uninstall applications. Here is a selection:
    1. AppZapper
    2. AppDelete
    3. Automaton
    4. Hazel
    5. AppCleaner
    6. CleanApp
    7. iTrash
    8. Amnesia
    9. Uninstaller
10. Spring Cleaning
For more information visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on removing software.

Since 31.0 update I cannot access Google or Facebook. I'm on a MAC and do not have firewalls or virus protection software

I'm on a MAC OS X version 10.9.4
Firefox browser version 31.0
I have no Firewall set up
I have no security software or virus protection software
Since my browser automatically updated to Firefox version 31.0 I cannot access:
google. com or facebook.com
Also, when I type in a url into the address bar and then hit the <return> button the url I type (ex: google.com or facebook.com) disappears and the previous url in the address window pops up.
Please help.

Can you try to start Firefox in Safe Mode to see if Firefox works properly with no error? You can start Firefox in Safe Mode below:
*'''Windows/Mac''': Go to Help > Restart with add-ons disabled
*'''Linux''': Run ''firefox -safe-mode'' in the Terminal/Konsole
If Firefox opens up fine with no problems, it's probably one of your extensions that's causing the issue. You can re-enable your add-ons one by one until you find the one that causes the issue upon being re-enabled.

MacBook Pro and Virus protection -Mac Newbe

I have just recently switched to Apple and purchased a MacBook Pro for home use. I am somewhat lost concerning what virus protection is "the best" to run. As with PC's there seems to be several offerings. I picked a "well known" version with my PC; however, a virus(worm,spyware...something) was still able to defeat the anti-virus and mess up my OS.

The last time I used a virus scanner on Mac OS was about 12 years ago. It only produced one false warning. The threat of viruses on OS X is much, much lower than in Windows, due to the fact that there's no real working virus for OS X yet, as far as I know. There are some concept 'viruses', but they all require user interaction to install, and with the new security features in Leopard it's very likely that you will notice when something fishy is going on (e.g. your Mac warns that you're opening a program when you have double-clicked something that was supposed to be an image).
I think that at the current time, it is more useful to maintain good security practices (enable your firewall, don't download and run any 'dubious' programs, check software update regularly and install security updates immediately,) than to install a virus scanner, which will only stress your system unnecessarily.
There are some situations where it's useful to install a virus scanner in OS X, though. First, if you use Boot Camp or Parallels (but then again, it may be more useful to install a PC virus scanner in your Windows partition). Second, to detect PC viruses, so you can tell if someone's PC is infected and prevent the virus from spreading to other PCs.

Internet Security and Virus Protection

I am brand spanking new to the Mac world. Just bought a beautiful 27" iMac last week. My question, Is there a need for virus protection/internet security software with macs?? I have long heard the possible myth that macs dont get virus'. Is this true?? If not, what is best that uses the least memory to run??
I have long loved AVG for windows

Is there a need for virus protection/internet security software with macs?? I have long heard the possible myth that macs dont get virus'. Is this true??
It is true that there are no Mac viruses at this time. There are a few trojans, but these are very rare and have threat levels ranging from low to none. See my [Mac Virus guide|http://www.reedcorner.net/thomas/guides/macvirus> for more details on this.
As to internet security, one never knows when a new exploit will be discovered, but Macs are pretty secure. I've never used any kind of internet security software and have never needed it. Just use that internet filter that's between your ears and you'll be fine. There are also a couple good general security documents linked to at the end of my virus guide that will be good reads for this purpose.

General Mac Housekeeping and Virus Protection

My MBP is my first foray into the world of Mac computing ever (well, not counting playing Oregon Trail back in 3rd grade on an ancient dinosaur of a mac haha) and so far it's been a positive experience. The CPU fan pretty much self-destructed, but it's being repaired as we speak, so no worries.
My question is this. As a lifetime Windows user (and until getting my MacBook, proponent of it being BETTER than Mac OS... boy did I learn my lesson) I used to commonly have to perform a lot of general housekeeping tasks, such as running the defrag utility, virus scanning, spyware scanning, disk cleanup, etc etc, and so on. Is this necessary in the OSX environment? Especially the virus protection software?
I neglected to purchase Norton Internet Security because it wasn't universal, but our PC's have always fallen pray to worms and viruses. I know Mac's are supposed to be amazing against viruses (a la the Mac vs. PC commercials) but is some virus and spyware protection necessary?
Anyway, my question got a lot more long winded than I planned and I SHOULD be working now, but hey, State workers are SUPPOSED to slack off, right? =P

OS X performs certain maintenance functions that are scheduled to occur on a daily, weekly, or monthly period. The maintenance scripts run in the early AM only if the computer is turned on 24/7 (no sleep.) If this isn't the case, then an excellent solution is to download and install a shareware utility called Macaroni that will automate the maintenance activity regardless of whether the computer is turned off or asleep.
OS X automatically defrags files less than 20 MBs in size, so unless you have a disk full of very large files there's little need for defragmenting the hard drive. As for virus protection there are few if any such animals affecting OS X. You can protect the computer easily using the freeware Open Source virus protection software ClamXAV. Personally I would avoid most commercial anti-virus software because of their potential for causing problems.
I would also recommend downloading the shareware utility TinkerTool System that you can use for periodic maintenance such as removing old logfiles and archives, clearing caches, etc.
When you install any new system software or updates be sure to repair the hard drive and permissions beforehand. I also recommend booting into safe mode before doing system software updates.
Get an external Firewire drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is significant):
1. Retrospect Desktop (Commercial - not yet universal binary)
2. Synchronize! Pro X (Commercial)
3. Deja Vu (Shareware)
4. SuperDuper (Commercial)
5. Carbon Copy Cloner (Freeware - not universal binary.)
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on maintenance, optimization, virus protection, and backup and restore.

Integrating Northon Internet security and virus protection

How can I integrate Norton internet Security with Thunderbird?
When I was using Outlook Express Norton was scanning the messages, sort the spam, removed the infected or malware messages and store them in different folders.
Now even some my good messages are moved to "Junk folder" at random!
Please help!

You don't want to let Norton do that, it will sooner or later cause problems with Thunderbird. You'll risk your Inbox being quarantined, and your mail files being corrupted. This will ultimately result in messages getting lost.
Check this article for more information about training your junk mail controls.
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Junk_Mail_Controls
Messages containing malware do not impose any risk while just sitting in your Inbox. As long as you don't open them, don't open attachments from unknown sources, and don't click on links, nothing will happen.

How do I temporarily turn off my Mac's firewall and/or virus protection so Carbonite can upload my data?

I downloaded Carbonite software to periodically back-up my data. But my Mac cannot contact the Carbonite server. I think this is because of my firewall or virus protection. How can I temporarily turn off my firewall and/or virus protection so Carbonite can upload all the data on my Mac? How will Carbonite be able to periodically upload my data when my firewall and virus protection are back on?
Zev

Watch out with Carbonite!
I found that it is not able to return many of the database for Apple products are not returned in a usable format.
I highly recommend that if you are going to use Carbonite that you test everything before commiting to it as your backup solution.
Allan

Virus protection/ firewalls?

I was wondering if the mac comes equip with virus protection and firewalls? Is there anything anyone can suggest that I get that would be good?

Jordan89,
Apple recommends using antivirus on your Mac. Item 6.
Apple ships antivirus in OS X Server. The antivirus
engine, clamav, is the same one found in clamXav, which was recommended earlier.
The marketspeak cited by Macbooked is just that - ad copy.
The firewall that comes with OS X is industrial-strength. Turn it on and
lock it down.
-Wayne

I am getting an error message that my network connection has timed out. while trying to update my iPhone on iTunes. Has anyone found a solution? I was given some advice about turning off my firewall and/or virus protection but am nervous about doing that.

I get a message that my network connection has timed out while trying to update my iPhone on iTunes. Has anyone else had that problem and if so what solutions have you found? I was told to turn off my firewall and/or virus protection while updating but am nervous about doing that for obvious reasons. I'm also disgusted with Apple not providing free tech support.

See this article about the ports that have to be open during the update process. iTunes has to contact Apple during the download. iTunes for Windows: Troubleshooting security software issues

How to install when I keep getting the following massage on windows 7 64 bit with or with firewall on and vwith or with virus protection on here is post This installation package could net be opened verify that the package exist and that you can access

how to install when I keep getting the following massage on windows 7 64 bit with or with firewall on and with or with virus protection on here is post " This installation package could net be opened verify that the package exist and that you can access" same when trying to install quicktime

I'd first try downloading an installer from the Apple website using a different web browser:
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/
If you use Firefox instead of IE for the download (or vice versa), do you get a working installer?

HT2311 Is there a virus protection for the apple iPad and iPad Air and iPhone 5 that we need to use for security?

Is there a virus protection for the apple iPads including the iPad Air and the iPhone 5, and if there is, how do we download it into our apple products? With everything that is going on it seems like I'm having more problems with freezing and crashing, getting kicked off my sites more often then ever! Is there a way to stop this?

There is no known malware capable of infecting an iOS device, unless it has been jailbroken. Due to the security that prevents malware, real anti-virus software on iOS is not possible, so none exists.
As to the problem, I'm unclear on exactly what you're seeing. What exactly does it mean to get "kicked off your sites?"

How do I stop about blank pop ups that are caused by Firefox? These are blocked ny my virus protection and ar

Ok my virus protection, I use Kaspersky, is detecting a packer every time I try to load Farmville on Facebook. This results in the game reloading over and over again. These pop up quickly with about blank in the address but nothing else. The path for this leads to Firefox...C:\Users\Toshiba\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\yipb6gme.default\Cache\C\4D\C1121d01. This was the last one shown in the list. It's a Swf2Swc. Today I have 24 at various times with 2 to 3 each time I tried to load Farmville. When my virus protection stopped them Farmville reloaded so I was never able to actually get into it.
How can I stop these.
Just so you know I did try safe mode with the same results

'''Try Firefox Safe Mode''' to see if the problem goes away. Safe Mode is a troubleshooting mode, which disables most add-ons.
''(If you're not using it, switch to the Default theme.)''
* On Windows you can open Firefox 4.0+ in Safe Mode by holding the '''Shift''' key when you open the Firefox desktop or Start menu shortcut.
* On Mac you can open Firefox 4.0+ in Safe Mode by holding the '''option''' key while starting Firefox.
* On Linux you can open Firefox 4.0+ in Safe Mode by quitting Firefox and then going to your Terminal and running: firefox -safe-mode (you may need to specify the Firefox installation path e.g. /usr/lib/firefox)
* Or open the Help menu and click on the '''Restart with Add-ons Disabled...''' menu item while Firefox is running.
[[Image:FirefoxSafeMode|width=520]]
''Once you get the pop-up, just select "'Start in Safe Mode"''
[[Image:Safe Mode Fx 15 - Win]]
'''''If the issue is not present in Firefox Safe Mode''''', your problem is probably caused by an extension, and you need to figure out which one. Please follow the [[Troubleshooting extensions and themes]] article for that.
''To exit the Firefox Safe Mode, just close Firefox and wait a few seconds before opening Firefox for normal use again.''
Please report back soon.

Virus Protection and Firewall Question

I just switched from a PC to a Mac. Should I download virus protection and if so which one is best for a Mac? Also, I believe my computer came with the firewall turned off... should I turn that on?

Should I download virus protection...
No. The OS has built-in recognition of known Mac malware in files downloaded from the Internet. All commercial "anti-virus" products for the Mac are worse than useless. Do not install any of them.
...and if so which one is best for a Mac?
Your mind. All Mac malware takes the form of trojans, which depend on the victim's ignorance to be installed. Don't be ignorant.
Also, I believe my computer came with the firewall turned off... should I turn that on?
Not unless you are on an untrusted network, such as a public hotspot, and have services enabled in the Sharing preference pane. Under any other circumstances, the firewall should be left off.

My computer keeps freezing on me every 15 min do i have a virus I was told when you have mozilla firefox you don't need virus protection is that true and how can I scan if I have a virus and now do i get rid of it?

# Question
My computer keeps freezing on me every 15 min do i have a virus I was told when you have mozilla firefox you don't need virus protection is that true and how can I scan if I have a virus and now do i get rid of it? edit

Start Firefox in [[Safe Mode]] to check if one of the add-ons is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Tools > Add-ons > Themes).
* Don't make any changes on the Safe mode start window.
See:
* [[Troubleshooting extensions and themes]]
* [[Troubleshooting plugins]]
If it does work in Safe-mode then disable all extensions and then try to find which is causing it by enabling one at a time until the problem reappears.
* Use "Disable all add-ons" on the [[Safe mode]] start window to disable all extensions.
* Close and restart Firefox after each change via "File > Exit" (Mac: "Firefox > Quit"; Linux: "File > Quit")
There are other things that need attention:
Your above posted system details show outdated plugin(s) with known security and stability risks that you should update.
# Shockwave Flash 10.0 r32
# Next Generation Java Plug-in 1.6.0_21 for Mozilla browsers
Update the [[Managing the Flash plugin|Flash]] plugin to the latest version.
*http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/
Update the [[Java]] plugin to the latest version.
*http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html (Java Platform: Download JRE)

DSL - Firewalls and Virus Protection

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for