Hi, I run a Mac OS X computer, and was wondering whether I need Anti-Virus and a Personal Firewall on my machine. I have Optus Cable.
Thanks, Scott.
Mac firewall
Jun 16, 2005
2 Replies
Old joke: A friend of mine makes the claim that Macs don't get viruses. Translation: even virus writers don't support mac's anymore...
Mac OSX is based on BSD - provided you are not running as the 'root' or administrative user, no virus can install itself. There are very few viruses for any *nix because of this.
What's wrong with the existing firewall that is part of OSX?
As a "home" user, you should not be offering services to the Internet. If you are not, then there is little chance of exploit.
Have you looked at the Macintosh news groups? It's not as if this subject has never been asked before.
Old guy
The versions of OS X i've used include a built in firewall:
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