Little Snitch Part 2: Rules

12/06/13 07:48 Filed in: Technology

Continuing my look at Little Snitch 3, I cover in depth how to work with rules that you set up in the application. Little Snitch not only allows you to set rules based on applications and system processes on a connection by connection basis, it also monitors those rules and shows where you might have contradictions or redundant rules that could be deleted. This helps you maintain a simple rule set that makes it easier to manage.

Little Snitch also gives you suggestions of rules you might want to implement and sets up temporary rules for you to look at and decide if you want to keep or discard them. It really is a great way to keep tabs on your entire network and set up a rule set that you are comfortable with.

One thing I always have to let people know about Little Snitch is the pop ups that warn you of connections can seem overwhelming at first. With every connection asking for your permission to accept or deny you really get a good sense for how many programs are trying to connect. But with all of those connections at first you can feel like the program is getting in your way. If you stick with it and go through all the pop ups and make decisions on what you want to allow and what you want to deny, over time these will become fewer and fewer and you will have the protection and limits to access that you wanted with very little hassle. So stick with it as this really is an incredibly useful tool!

Tags: Mac OSX, Tutorials, Utilities, Server