Mavericks Server Part 37: Server Security Part 2: Icefloor 2

25/07/14 15:55 Filed in: Technology

In this second part on server security, I cover an excellent software firewall called IceFloor. Now I have covered IceFloor previously in my Mountain Lion Server series but IceFloor has been updated to 2.0 since then and it has been redesigned to make the process much smoother and easier to set up.

A software firewall is critical to those who have front facing servers which means their servers do not sit behind any physical hardware firewall. In essence most front facing servers have all of their ports open to the whole world so you need a software firewall to close the ports you don’ want open to secure your server. IceFloor is a front end to the built in PF firewall found on OS X Server. If you are not someone who likes to work through the Terminal, IceFloor has you covered. It’s graphical interface gives you access to all of the features found in the PF Firewall and gives you a visual way to customize and configure the firewall to fit your needs. It even has a built in wizard that will walk you through the process of setting up your firewall making it easy to configure.

In this screencast I cover installation and set up, how to open the ports you need to make your services work, and walk through all of the options included in IceFloor. If you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them below or on my Youtube Channel.

Tags: Mac OSX, Server