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A free, fully open-source application firewall for MAC OS High Sierra and later. Allows real-time monitoring of network connections being made by applications, and blocking/allowing of these per app by user. Supports use of hostname lists (Energized Blu etc) to block known tracker and advertising domains for all apps. Best Firewall mac software, free downloads and reviews at WinSite. Free Mac Best Firewall Shareware and Freeware.
One of the most important tools in your online security arsenal is a firewall. Firewalls block incoming and outgoing network connections and can often be configured to be as strict or as relaxed as you like. You can also usually configure a firewall to prevent your Mac from being “pinged” – where a piece of data is sent to it over the network to check if it’s “there.”
Firewalls can be software or hardware, though most these days are software. macOS has its built-in firewall that can be configured in the Security & Privacy pane of System Preferences and your broadband router probably has one too. Your router’s firewall, if it has one, can be turned on and off in the settings webpage for the router.
Tip
Want to know how to turn on the firewall on your Mac? Just go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Firewall and turn it on.
Why download another Mac firewall?
If your Mac already has a firewall built-in, why would you consider a third-party version? Well, for one thing, the macOS firewall only blocks incoming connections; it doesn’t protect you from security threats that come from outbound traffic. Though there are advanced options tucked away, it’s not as configurable as some third-party firewalls.
Did you know?
In addition to a firewall, it’s a good idea to use an anti-malware tool to scan your Mac regularly and keep it safe. CleanMyMac X does just that. You can use it to scan your Mac manually, and it will compare what it finds against a database of known malware. Or set it to monitor your Mac in real-time, so that it protects it automatically. Download CleanMyMac X – a free trial is available.
The best firewalls for your Mac
Little Snitch
Little Snitch has been around for almost as long as macOS. Its goal is to block apps from making outgoing network connections unless you explicitly choose to allow it. This is useful for a couple of reasons.
It stops apps from contacting a server and sending data about you to it.
It alerts you to software that shouldn't be on your Mac i.e., malware, and is trying to connect to a host server.
When an app initiates a connection to a server, Little Snitch alerts you and offers you the opportunity to allow it to connect or to prevent it. It learns from your decisions and creates rules based on them. Neatly, there’s a silent mode that hides alerts so that you’re not bombarded with them – there are a lot of them at first. You can then come back to alerts later to make decisions and create rules.
Lulu
We mentioned earlier that the macOS firewall is good at blocking incoming connections. Lulu complements that by blocking outgoing connections, similarly to Little Snitch. By default, it blocks all outgoing connections. If you decide to allow an app or service to connect, every attempt made by that app or service will be allowed. Lulu’s source code is published on GitHub so anyone can inspect it.
HandsOff
Unlike Lulu and Little Snitch, HandsOff blocks both incoming and outgoing connections. And it allows you to closely monitor and control apps that use internet connection to send information back to a remote server. Besides, HandsOff can also block domain name resolving, multiple subdomains, and offers protection from trojans and worms.
HandsOff’s options are more finely-tuned than most, allowing you to block all outgoing connections from an app or only those to a specific domain, subdomain, or IP address. You can also choose to block the connection once, until the Mac is restarted, or permanently.
Radio Silence
Radio Silence is the simplest and most elegant of the firewalls available for macOS. There’s nothing to configure and no pop-up windows to distract you. One small window is its only user interface element. That window is split into two tabs.
One, titled Network Monitor, displays all the apps that have open network connections. Next to the app is a number showing you how many open connections it has open. Click on that number, and you can see a list of connections.
Murus Pro
Murus Pro consists of two apps, Murus and Vallum. The former will perfectly complement the macOS built-in firewall by providing an interface that allows you to create rules for incoming connections. The latter, Vallum, is similar to Little Snitch and Radio Silence – it allows you to monitor and block incoming connections.
Murus allows you to drag and drop elements to create sets of rules from pre-created presets. Or, you can re-write your own rules from scratch. If what you want is to fine-tune the built-in macOS firewall, Murus could be the ideal tool.
Vallum monitors and intercepts outgoing connections and lets you block them. It sits in the menu bar until you decide to configure it. When you do, like Murus Pro, you can do it by dragging and dropping. For example, to prevent an app from making outgoing connections, you just drag it from the Finder onto the Vallum window. You can modify the firewall rules for each app manually, or use one of the predefined presets.
There are several very good firewall tools available for Macs. Some complement Mac’s built-in firewall and block incoming connections; others are focused on outgoing connections. Whichever you choose, it’s a good idea also to use additional security and Mac maintenance tool such as CleanMyMac X.
You may be surprised at just how many network connections some apps make. And next to that number is a Block button, allowing you to prevent the app from making connections. Press that button, and the app shows up in the other tab, Firewall. That tab lists all the apps you’ve blocked from making connections. It’s a very simple but effective tool that has won praise and rave reviews from some of the most well-known Mac blogs and websites.
Mac OS claims that there is no need to install any antivirus, or any such security in your Apple Mac, because there is no way your Mac will ever get affected by a virus. Following the claim, most Mac user does not have any antivirus, or even any firewall installed in their laptops/desktops, which can actually prove helpful for the hackers. Therefore the recommended thing to do is to activate a firewall for protecting your important information from being hacked, as well as from stopping Trojan and other such virus from sending information from your system.
Little Snitch is one such firewall application, that helps in protecting your private data from being sent out as well as from being hacked by hackers. But, Little Snitch is not the only application that works like the firewall, there are few other applications as well that acts as the firewall for Mac OS. Below mentioned is a list of few such free apps that you can install to protect your privacy.
Radio Silence
The most useful and handy app for all the others is Radio Silence. It is a small app that allows you to particularize and block all the apps you want from accessing the internet. Moreover, it is very user-friendly and is designed for all those who are not at all tech savvy and don’t want to go into the very detailed configuration. The best thing about radio silence is, you can install and forget about it, as it does not require any specific maintenance neither does it interrupts you by creating pop-ups. Also, it is quite fast and takes only a little of your system space.
FeaturesRadio Silence lets you keep a list of apps that aren't allowed to go online.
Protect your privacy
Prevent apps from phoning home
Save on bandwidth and data charges
Radio Silence is completely invisible
The firewall is invisible and always active. You don't have to keep any windows open.
No annoying pop-ups
No clutter on your screen or dock
No effect on your Mac's performance
Radio Silence’s network monitor shows you every network connection in real time.
If you find a misbehaving app, you can block it with a single click.
Radio Silence exposes everything
Find the hidden helpers and background processes apps use to make connections:
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Hands Off
Another amazing app, that helps in protecting your private data. The app runs silently, and only when an application tries to send out any data, hands off takes a step and notifies the user about it. The best thing about Hands Off is, it blocks a certain app and thus keeps the system protected, till the user personally unblocks it. Hands Off are known for blocking both incoming and outgoing data. It further protects the system from Trojans, warms etc. You can certainly try it out once. After all, it's free.
FeaturesHands Off! is an application to monitor and control the access of applications to your network and disks. Being able to monitor the normally unnoticeable activities enables you to make informed decisions regarding the transfer of your private information, hence avoiding confidential information leakage.
When connected to the Internet, applications can send any information stored on your computer to whoever they want without you ever knowing. Using Hands Off!, you can monitor and control Internet connections from all applications as to expose hidden connections and prevent them from sending data or phoning home without your consent.
Applications present on your computer can freely read, store or erase information on your computer without your knowledge. Using Hands Off!, you can monitor and control disk access from all applications as to prevent them from obtaining confidential information, erasing your data or storing cookies.
Murus
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It is a basic level free app that can be downloaded as well as used for free. It is mostly designed for the novice, and can be used by those who do not have a lot to protect. It features inbound filtering and logging and can be used to protect services running on the Mac. The basic functions of Murus include filtering of incoming data.
Murus Lite is free for both personal and commercial use.
IceFloor
IceFloor is a graphic PF firewall. It is known for regulating PF configurations, logging, bandwidth, different kinds of filtering and etc. many more connections. The functioning of it can be a bit complex for some, because it is known for creating different groups which further blocks or passes the connections, assigns parameters, addresses etc.
FeaturesIceFloor is a free and open source graphic interface for the OS X built-in PF network firewall.
IceFloor is group based. Create groups and assign addresses, services and parameters to pass or block connections
makes use of its own set of PF configuration files; default OS X PF configuration files in /etc are not modified by IceFloor
start with IceFloor Wizard to create a basic PF configuration in a few mouse clicks
use IceFloor interface to set up very complex and customized PF rulesets
manage inbound and outbound connections with filtering and bandwidth rules for your Mac and NAT clients
hide services using port knocking, list and block connections on the fly using Inspector
create new configuration presets and easily switch between predefined and custom PF presets
mix IceFloor PF rules with your custom PF rules, interact with external applications like sshguard
share Internet connection using PF NAT, assign per-client filtering and bandwidth rules and redirections
browse PF ruleset with the new PF Rules Browser, display filtering, bandwidth and NAT PF rules and pipes
analyze PF logs with numerical and graphical statistics, enumerate remote hosts using stroke or nmap based GUI tools
debug and test PF rulesets easily and quickly using the optional IceFloor Menulet
IceFloor requires OS X 10.7 or later. Some features requires OS X 10.8 or later.
Note: While the software is classified as free, it is actually donationware. Please consider making a donation to help support development.
Flying Buttress
Flying Buttress is for those who intend on having a strong and high-end firewall system. This is for those people who want advanced firewall system. Flying buttress performs all kind of advanced works like it filters host or various network addresses. It discerns configurations based on their networks, it also helps in forwarding and configuring NAT and many more. Flying Buttress is usually not recommended for day to day use, unless you are looking for some high-end system to protect your data.Besides the above-mentioned ones there are few other free firewall apps for Mac like –
FeaturesFirewall filters that include qualifiers on host or network addresses
Firewall filters that operate on other than TCP or UDP protocols
Firewall filters that include the whole range of ipfw qualifiers, such as IP options, ICMP types or TCP flags
Per-filter logging configuration, including the ability to log allowed connections and the option to not log certain types of denied connections
NAT port forwarding or other custom NAT configuration
Different filter configurations on different network interfaces.
A persistant, searchable firewall log entry database with graphical log viewer
Scriptable control of your firewall, such as via cron or other shell automation
Access and ability to easily edit the raw firewall configuration text, including an integrated ipfw filter syntax checker.
The ability to switch between different firewall configuration sets quickly and easily.
Rubbernet
Rubbernet helps in keeping an eye on all the network-based apps. It keeps a tag of all the activities of the specified apps and monitors the data shared over those apps. It also provides an in-detailed usage of the network of every app.
FeaturesReal-time network dashboard:
Rubbernet provides real-time monitoring so you can keep an eye on the exact state of your live network connections. With the Activity sidebar, you'll be able to see which applications are currently communicating over your network. When connections are idle, they will dim to let you know that traffic has stopped.
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App bandwidth usage:
Rubbernet provides a breakdown of per-app network usage, so you can quickly detect apps that phone home, connect to certain servers without your knowledge, or blame the app that's slowing down your network.
Live graphs:
Real-time charting displays download and upload transfer rates for all active apps on all monitored Macs. Visualize your network usage and get a bead on network hogs before they get out of control.
Monitor all computers on your network from one Rubbernet instance on your Mac. No need to get up and open Rubbernet on a remote Mac to see its network statistics. Unlike other network monitoring tools, there is no complicated setup. It takes just a second to install or uninstall the necessary tools for Rubbernet to work. After that, they sit quietly in the background and provide the app with live data with minimal resource consumption.
LuLu
LuLu is used for blocking all unsanctioned outgoing network transfer. It does not have many functions, and only provides protection against sharing unauthorized data.
TripMode
It has only one particular function and that is to block the internet connection for the specified applications.
FeaturesTripMode automatically reduces your mobile data consumption when you use a mobile hotspot
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Only apps that you’ve selected are allowed to access the Internet when TripMode is ON. The rest is blocked.
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TripMode activates itself on networks where you used it before. No need to fiddle in menus.
See how much data was used per app and per session, day, or month. Spot the data hungry apps.
However protected your Apple Mac is, it is always safe to have a firewall application installed, for none of us wants our personal data to be leaked. Firewalls are important, it does not matter which app you choose to install, just having one for basic security is enough.