[TheZee]

Ok, here's the deal,
The Apple installed firewall that came with my iBook is AWOL. When I go to system preferences/Sharing then click on the firewall tab, I get a request to disable any 3rd party firewall that may be running. I do have one running (FireWalk X2) so I disable it as instructed. I then go back to the firewall tab and get a message stating, "Firewall is Unavailable." Does anyone know what the heck is happening? I am thinking that the installed firewall is somehow gone. Is this a realistic possiblilty? If this is the case, does anyone know of a way that I can get it back up and running? Please don't advise me to reinstall the system. That's a bitch. The only firewall I have at the present is a 3rd party firewall called "FireWalk X2." It's pretty good but having the foundation of the Apple installed firewall is imperative to my OnLine survival. Any and all guidance, advice, words of wisdom and the like is greatly welcomed. Thanks.

[piracy]

Originally posted by TheZee:

Ok, here's the deal,
The Apple installed firewall that came with my iBook is AWOL. When I go to system preferences/Sharing then click on the firewall tab, I get a request to disable any 3rd party firewall that may be running. I do have one running (FireWalk X2) so I disable it as instructed. I then go back to the firewall tab and get a message stating, "Firewall is Unavailable." Does anyone know what the heck is happening? I am thinking that the installed firewall is somehow gone. Is this a realistic possiblilty? If this is the case, does anyone know of a way that I can get it back up and running? Please don't advise me to reinstall the system. That's a bitch. The only firewall I have at the present is a 3rd party firewall called "FireWalk X2." It's pretty good but having the foundation of the Apple installed firewall is imperative to my OnLine survival. Any and all guidance, advice, words of wisdom and the like is greatly welcomed. Thanks.

You need to uninstall FireWalk before the built-in firewall will work again.

FYI, Virtual PC also disables the built-in firewall in connection-sharing mode.

[cpac]

Originally posted by TheZee:
Any and all guidance, advice, words of wisdom and the like is greatly welcomed. Thanks.

did you try logging out/in and/or restarting after you disabled the 3rd party firewall?

[Kate]

Usually those so called 3rd party firewalls are just but GUIs to ipfw, the systems built in firewall. This is also the firewall you can switch on/off through the system pref pane, which in fact is just another GUI to ipfw.

When another GUI app sets settings of ipfw it checks that different controllers will not mess up, like one opening and another closing at the same time. Therefore it won't release the control simply by switching off the GUI controller. This is a bit messy, as Apple does not provide a GUI for releasing the controls.

However this can usually be achieved by some simple command line commands:

Start your terminal and enter the following

sudo ipfw flush

enter your admin password, hit <return> and you should be set.

After this you need to specify a new set of restrictions of the firewall, i.e. go to the system pref pane switch on ipfw and set your ports.

[Millennium]

Originally posted by Kate:
Usually those so called 3rd party firewalls are just but GUIs to ipfw, the systems built in firewall. This is also the firewall you can switch on/off through the system pref pane, which in fact is just another GUI to ipfw.

FireWalk can be made to act as a frontend to ipfw, but by default it actually is its own thing.

[Kate]

Originally posted by Millennium:
FireWalk can be made to act as a frontend to ipfw, but by default it actually is its own thing.

Thats why I said "usually" as I am not aware what incarnation of a FW exactly FireWalk is.
If it implements its own firewall you have to uninstall this before setting off for using ipfw.


Does it work now, or are there still issues?

[TheZee]

Thanks for your advice and guidance with this Apple firewall hulla-baloo. I am giong to follow your leads and uninstall, completely, the 3rd party firewall I have (FireWalk X2) and see if that does the trick. I'm crossing my fingers and my toes people. With the "Terminal" advice; Do I type in the commands you suggested even if the uninstall of the 3rd party firewall works? Is it a good idea to perform that terminal firewall purge occasionally anywho ? I am not very fluent in dealing with the terminal but I looking to learn all I can.

[Kate]

Originally posted by TheZee:
Do I type in the commands you suggested even if the uninstall of the 3rd party firewall works?

Yes, it would make sense to be sure the Apple ipfw works afterwards, whatever has been setup before. You cannot damage things, but reset ipfw to the original state.

Originally posted by TheZee:
Is it a good idea to perform that terminal firewall purge occasionally anywho ?

No, after you set ipfw either via terminal or by any of those mentioned GUI apps you would loose all these settings. If you set the firewall to block or allow certain network based traffic it should be for a reason. If that reason no longer is valid you may flush your settings, but it does not makes sense to do this occasionally.

[TheZee]

Thanks Kate, for your words of wisdom. Even though I am a beginner at the terminal usage, I am giong to take your advice and input the commands you sent me. I trust that I won't freak my system out right ??? I have recently trashed everything I could find that had to do with the third party firewall app that I had running, thinking that it would set things back to normal operating conditions with th Apple installed firewall. However, I must have missed something because I am still getting the same message to "disable the third party firewall first" and "the firewall is unavailable." I am racking my brain trying to figure out this dilemma because I searched for all the elements I could find that were tied to FireWalk X2 and any other third party firewall app that I have tried (NetBarrier, BrickHouse, Sunshield), trashed those files and yet I still get that damn message. What gives ??? How can I disable a firewall that does not exist anymore because I have trashed it ??? I'll keep up my search and destroy tactics until I find the pesky element that is tripping up the Apple install firewall. In part, because I don't quite look forward to reinstalling the system. That's a drag. If there is anything you or anyone else can offer in the way of wisdom and guidance I will be greatful.

[Kate]

Originally posted by TheZee:
Thanks Kate, for your words of wisdom. Even though I am a beginner at the terminal usage, I am giong to take your advice and input the commands you sent me. I trust that I won't freak my system out right ???

No it won't. This is as simple as a copy and paste can be. Try it.

[TheZee]

Kate,
U R AWESOME !!! Check this out; I did as you instructed and flushed the ipfw using the command lines for the terminal that you so graciously gave me. It did the trick. I was able to turn the firewall back on. Ok, now this is tripping me out. After I restart my Mac, go to the firewall tap and click on it, I get that same dang message advising me to disable a third party firewall before using the Apple installed firewall and that the firewall is "Unavailable." However, if I go to the terminal and run the command to flush the ipfw then go back to the firewall tab in system preferences, the firewall is then available and I am able to turn it on. Crazy right? I mean, something seems to still be activating during startup that is a remnant of some third party app. I went through everything I could track down having to do with any third party firewall I have ever installed and trashed it. Would you happen to know if there is anywhere specific I should search for this rogue element? I am also wondering, how do I and what do I input into ipfw after the flush. I remember you saying something about having to reinput the ports in ipfw? What is the specific info that I must reinput to make sure the Apple installed firewall is working as it should after I perform the flush in terminal? How do I do it? Sorry for all the questions. For me, this is new and undiscovered territory. You have helped immensley, Thank you. There is one more thing, if I may. I am concerned about whether the firewall is operating properly and protecting me as it should. Even though I can activate it after I run the flush I have this uneasy feeling that there is something that I am forgetting to do to make sure it's operating as it is supposed to. Please advise. . . Thanks.
Peace,

[Kate]

There seems to be still a component of another install, yes. I recommend to contact the manufacturers support for advice how to uninstall this. I assume this is not a component in "startupitems", this may be hidden somewhere in /sbin, /bin or else. If the program in question has a log file that you did not already remove, this may provide info on what had been installed and where.

For more info on running ipfw Apple provides some tidbits here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107846

For the purpose of checking if you have unnecessairy ports open there are some websites that run a scan on your ip to detect any open ports. Keep in mid that this will also "detect" ports that need to be open in order to let essential services communicate, such as http, ftp, afp and so on. If not needed those services and ports can be closed via the Systemprefs as well. Other ports can be closed using the terminal and editing the ipfw config file. Since this is a bit complicated and can get unmanagable quite easyly I would recommend using a GUI based frontend to ipfw such as Brickhouse.

If you switch on ipfw from the SystemPreferences it already enables a set of rules that provide protection out of the box. Under this pane in SystemPreferences you may also switch on/off ports that are related to services described there. Usually if you switch off ssh, telnet and ftp and AppleRemoteAccess you are running the firewall so tight, that only the basics can get through. This is usually a very good setup for even advanced protection.
In case you tend to be special about networking safety you may use even tighter settings. However these require to have some more insight knowledge about services and their underlying technology to be set up without blocking the things you want to go still through.

There are lots of details about this available in the net. The keywords "ipfw config" in Google bring up a bucket load of good links for further digging into this.

[TheZee]

Thanks for your continued guidance and support my Mac sisters & brothers. I am trying every bit of advice you are giving me. I have yet to resolve the issue. I am hopeful, however, that with this new guidance, it will resove the dilemma so that I can utilize the Apple installed firewall as it was intended to function. I will keep you all posted as to the status of it all. Thank you. Peace.