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DoorStop Personal Edition 1.1.2 ($59, 10-Day Evaluation) Thanks to the introduction of Mac OS 9, you can now offer services such as File Sharing and Program Linking via TCP/IP. Combine this with a cable or xDSL modem, and you can offer full-time access to your system's resources. Alas, there may be those with less than honorable intentions trying to access your Mac. Fortunately, DoorStop Personal Edition can detect and prevent these attempts... After you install the package and restart (a DoorStop Extension is installed) you should then run the Admin application. This is where you can specify access to common services, or create your own rules.
Personal DoorStop Administration The first thing you should do is turn on protection by hitting the Start button. By default, access to all services will be denied. This is considered good security practice; don't allow access to a service unless it is specifically granted. You can now configure each service. The predefined services are Web Sharing, File Sharing via TCP/IP, Program Linking via TCP/IP, and All Others. Besides Deny, you can Allow access, Allow access from specific addresses, and Deny access to specific addresses. If you go to the Edit menu and select Advanced Mode, you will now see the port numbers for each predefined service, and can also define your own Services with the New button. This is useful if you are running third-party servers not included with Mac OS. Go to the Logging and Notification menu, and you can select under what conditions access attempts are logged. This can be used to see who is trying to access your machine, and what they were trying to access. You can also ask for a notification window, instantly letting you know about access attempts.
Gotcha! In the old days, Mac users didn't need to be concerned by unauthorized access to their Mac via the Internet, but with full-time connections and TCP/IP services, this is now a valid concern. DoorStop Personal Edition can now log and prevent such attempts. Have any other Mac OS security or network gadgets you'd like us to look at? Let John know via email, or share it with the rest of us in the Mac Gadget Forum. Useful Link |
