posted on Mac Beginners

Security and peace of mind on a mac may be simpler and somewhat less of an issue than what you had when using a windows machine, especialy when it comes to the virus perspective. That said however, for any computer connected to the internet a firewall is something that you need to keep from intrusion onto your computer or indeed your network in a business environment. Now for the average home user turning on your inbuilt OSX firewall in system preferences should suffice - you will find firewall options under “Sharing” - or if you are someone like me who never trusted the inbuilt windows xp firefall to start with or in fact you need something a little more in your firewall software as you need it for a network then there are some software you can look into.

First off we have a freeware application called WaterRoof which is a frontend for the Mac OS X firewall and will help you configure extra options and monitors with setup wizards and an easy interface. Second up is the commercial software DoorStop X Firewall which again claims to add extension to the built in OSX firewall control, and on the main page you will find another piece of software a book and most interestingly a link to their blog on security which may be worth a look.

Now on the business/networking side of things is Intego NetBarrier with firewall, anti-vandal tools, privacy protection, data filter and monitoring tools you can secure your computer/network and keep a close eye on what’s going on.

Antivirus protection isn’t really neccessary we are told but in the light of recent shenanigans and possible future developments i can’t help but feel viruses are on the way to OSX, so just in case get your hands on a copy of ClamXav to make your online and network usage totally secure for your mac.