Slim Down for Summer with That's Fit

WaterRoof firewall manager

Lots of people know that OS X has a very powerful stateful packet inspection firewall (ipfw) under the shiny hood of the Sharing Preference Pane thanks to its UNIX underpinnings, but actually understanding and controlling that power is something else entirely. Perhaps a bit lost in the rush to Christmas Macworld published a nice guide to configuring the Leopard firewall that's definitely helpful in getting a bit clearer about what's going on. But if you really want to dig into the options you've got to go deeper, and if you don't have the command line chops to set it up yourself, you'll want to check out the open-source WaterRoof from hanynet.com.

Basically, WaterRoof is the graphical front end to ipfw that Apple left out. As the developer notes, its features "include dynamic rules, bandwidth management, NAT configuration and port redirection, pre-defined rule sets and a wizard for easy configuration." Particularly if you're trying to use a Mac as a gateway or router and need more sophistication than the built-in Internet Sharing provides, WaterRoof can really simplify matters.

WaterRoof is a free download (donations requested) with separate versions for Tiger and Leopard. The same developer also has a simplified version with many fewer features called NoobProof.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

TUAW Features


Mac 101 ask-tuaw
Mac News
WWDC (250)
.Mac (57)
Accessories (635)
Airport (74)
Analysis / Opinion (1329)
Apple (1637)
Apple Corporate (555)
Apple Financial (187)
Apple History (45)
Apple Professional (54)
Apple TV (160)
Audio (446)
Bad Apple (118)
Beta Beat (149)
Blogging (84)
Bluetooth (16)
Bugs/Recalls (56)
Cult of Mac (869)
Deals (214)
Desktops (115)
Developer (252)
Education (98)
eMac (10)
Enterprise (138)
Features (396)
Freeware (381)
Gaming (361)
Graphic Design (31)
Hardware (1281)
Holidays (37)
Humor (576)
iBook (65)
iLife (234)
iMac (184)
Internet (325)
Internet Tools (1309)
iTS (967)
iTunes (796)
iWork (21)
Leopard (367)
Mac mini (112)
Mac Pro (53)
MacBook (202)
MacBook Air (79)
Macbook Pro (220)
MobileMe (16)
Multimedia (439)
Odds and ends (1437)
Open Source (277)
OS (910)
Peripherals (208)
Podcasting (182)
Podcasts (89)
Portables (197)
PowerBook (135)
PowerMac G5 (50)
Retail (577)
Retro Mac (48)
Rig of the Week (42)
Rumors (629)
Software (4304)
Software Update (406)
Steve Jobs (252)
Stocking Stuffers (50)
Surveys and Polls (97)
Switchers (112)
The Woz (34)
TUAW Business (235)
Universal Binary (281)
UNIX / BSD (61)
Video (902)
Weekend Review (81)
WIN Business (47)
Wireless (83)
Xserve (39)
iPhone/iPod News
iPhone (1487)
iPod Family (2024)
App Store (17)
SDK (14)
Mac Events
One More Thing (27)
Liveblog (1)
Other Events (226)
Macworld (489)
Mac Learning
AppleScript (2)
Ask TUAW (101)
Blogs (85)
Books (26)
Books and Blogs (62)
Cool tools (443)
Hacks (459)
How-tos (482)
Interviews (43)
Mods (185)
Productivity (586)
Reviews (107)
Security (153)
Terminal Tips (58)
Tips and tricks (563)
Troubleshooting (166)
TUAW Features
iPhone 101 (26)
TUAW Labs (3)
Blast From the Past (17)
TUAW Tips (141)
Flickr Find (34)
Found Footage (80)
Mac 101 (88)
TUAW Interview (31)
Widget Watch (198)
The Daily Best (1)
TUAW Faceoff (4)

RESOURCES

RSS NEWSFEEDS

Powered by Blogsmith

Sponsored Links

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) bloggers (30 days)

#BloggerPostsCmts
1Cory Bohon862
2Robert Palmer6046
3Steven Sande5723
4Dave Caolo370
5Scott McNulty370
6Mat Lu358
7Erica Sadun282
8Mike Schramm222
9Brett Terpstra210
10Michael Rose1334
11Christina Warren1245
12Joshua Ellis54
13Lisa Hoover26
14Chris Ullrich12
15Jason Clarke11

Featured Galleries

Macworld 2008 Keynote
Macworld 2008 Build-up
Apple Vanity Plates
DiscPainter
Macworld Expo 2007 show floor
The Macworld Faithful in Line
iPhone First Look
AT&T 3G Coverage Map
MobileMe Guided Tour UI Changes

 

    Most Commented On (7 days)

    Recent Comments

    More Apple Analysis

    More from AOL Money and Finance

    Weblogs, Inc. Network

    Other Weblogs Inc. Network blogs you might be interested in: