Mac firewall is the simplest feature in Mac to keep you safe at most occasions. The safest way to surf in and around open WiFi network places is to keep your Mac firewall ‘ON’ at all times. This would absolutely not hurt your Mac performances by any means rather keeps it safer from the prying eyes. The steps is: Click on Apple logo on the top left corner of your Mac, click on System Preferences, Click on Security & Privacy, Click on Firewall, Click on Turn On Firewall. That will be all. You may then close the window. If you can’t click on Click on Firewall button, you may have to unlock the lock from the left lower corner of the same window. Once you open the System Preferences, the rest process is shown in the following screen capture:
There are instances that you would not take chances especially when your Mac does contain sensitive personal information. You would not like to do any financial transaction using your Mac connected to public network. Mainly because it’s not safer or might have compromised or that you have your Mac totally exposing its presence. Not only that, your Mac will be happy to welcome potential hackers if you have never turned the firewall ON.
Check if your Mac Firewall is ON
Before accessing public WiFi, don’t forget to check whether your device firewall is ON. Secondly, you may proceed to change your unsafe password to something mix of capital letters, small letters, symbols and numbers. At least one from each of the terms is considered strong to brute force your Mac at public networks.
You may like to read this “How Did malware come to my Mac?” to learn more about keeping your devices safe. You can also make sure that you are not downloading free movies or music related contents using readily available public WiFi or similar hotspots offered. Mostly such networks are in the eyes of the bad guys who are always sniffing around expecting to make some money – whatever that may cost! So stay alert, stay safe and spread the good words.
You can so participate in expressing your views whether the instructions provided in this page were easy to follow. You can also tell your friends and family to keep their Macs safe the same way you did. Happy surfing the good web!