A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
Some Rules
- Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn’t great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
- Don’t promote proprietary software
- Try to keep things on topic
- If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
- Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
- Be nice :)
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much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
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I got a feeling it’s probably quite a bit risky. Isn’t it possible to get another firewall made by a third party?
vallum is the third party firewall
Why don’t you tell us what problem you’re trying to solve. I run a lot of things on my Mac and I’ve never had to mess with the firewall.
He wants file transfers between MacOS and Android. It can probably be done with a LAN file share but he’s using some kind of random app to do it.
like i wrote, it’s not what i need to do, it’s what “a non geek friend” can do.
would a LAN file share be easier to explain to somebody who would rather dropsend it because they make it “soooo easy”?
Then tell them to get an iPhone and they can use AirDrop.
A LAN share is easier than whatever you’re doing now. You’re here asking how to deal with the firewall when you could have set up the network share in ten steps, and never once needed to touch the firewall.
https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/mac-help/mh17131/13.0/mac/13.0
but why shouldn’t i touch the macOs’ firewall? Why is it a bad idea?
So, if you’re a typical Mac user, you really don’t need to enable the firewall. But, if you’re doubting the advice here or just feel better with it enabled, you’re also free to enable it. Typical Mac users probably won’t notice many (or any) issues after enabling the firewall. Everything should continue working normally.
In summary, a firewall isn’t really necessary on a typical Mac desktop, just as it isn’t really necessary on a typical Ubuntu Linux desktop. It could potentially lead to more hassle with setting up certain network services. But, if you feel more comfortable with it on, you’re free to enable it!
https://www.howtogeek.com/205108/your-macs-firewall-is-off-by-default-do-you-need-to-enable-it/
https://appletoolbox.com/mac-firewall-what-is-it-do-you-need-it-how-to-use-it/
When you shouldn’t use the firewall
Of course, there is a reason that Mac has its firewall disabled by default, and that’s that most users will never need it. If you don’t download apps over the internet too often and you vet them before downloading them, and if you’re not a developer, you should be fine.
wouldn’t it be better to tell them to install linux on that macbook? (like they would listen to me)
get localSend to work, like i wrote