Should I turn on Firewall.

Michigan One Fly wrote:
We have 2 Macs and our set up is below.

Hughes Satellite for internet
Netgear Router
Eithernet to 2 Macs from Router
Wireless Print Server
No neighbors for over 500 feet in any direction and 200 feet to the road.

Would there be a need for us to have the anything other than "Allow all incoming connections" checked?
thanks in advance for any help.

That's fine, but you should have the WiFi encrypted anyway.
Your router is providing NAT (network address translation) so you are not really directly exposed to the internet.
I have my firewall essentially off, - allow all incoming - - but I have my WiFi and router firewalls set appropriately.
You could also take a portable on a leisurely amble, and see how big your WiFi footprint is.

Any laptop you take to an open WiFi access point (coffee shop, etc...) are the ones that you might want to enable the firewall for.

Any Mac that spends all its time only using your home router, does not need the firewall.

I will remember to turn on my firewall when I am roaming from coffee shop, cafe or bookstore to places that offer wifi. I didn't realize how the added protection would make a difference until reading this forum.

thanks

tjg

There is no practical need to have your Mac Firewall "on" and your router firewall "on" as well. You should turn your wireless encryption "on" however. "WPA" is probably the better choice for the encryption.

You may also elect to limit wireless access to only the users with "allowed' MAC addresses. You'll have to open your wireless router web browser and enter the MAC address for each computer to be "allowed" wireless car access list.

See http://kbserver.netgear.com/kbwebfiles/n101675.asp/ to setup the encryption and wireless card access list.