In a previous thread "Skype and Firewall" now closed for read only, users talked about the pop-up NIS? message "the computer (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) is attempting to access Skype......" with Block or Allow options. In response, Ryan McGann of Symantec advised, inter alia, that "we don't know why Skype (makes) the connection nor what the other person will do when they connect to your Mac." Indeed, "WHY??????". And I wonder not only what the other person WILL do but also what they CAN do. I am not computer savvy but I can only guess that the access attempts are malevolent. I get the pop-up message as soon as I start talking to the person who I called and it is infuriating because it cuts off the opening conversation. Every time. I am forced to take an option just to regain the sound. Then another message will appear at some time during the conversation, again cutting off sound. I personally don't wish to allow anyone to access my Skype unless I have asked them to or if I have previously been in conversation with them. So what can I do about it? Maybe I can de-Nortonise? my computer but then I am not aware of people trying to access. Wouldn't it be better if the pop-up just informed of an access attempt without giving an option to block or allow and without cutting off the sound?? (It seems to make no difference which option is taken anyway).
I set my Skype options so that only someone who is in my contact list can call me, and have set connection blocking to allow all incoming connections - I figure I'm fairly safe this way, unless someone hijacks one of my contacts' computers.
The point of a firewall isn't to allow everything and then tell you later what we allowed. The firewall is setup to allow common traffic that we are pretty sure is safe. After that we have to rely on you to make some informed decisions—such as, do you know the person who is calling you?
If you want to allow everybody to connect to your Mac using Skype, then you can certainly just go into the Norton Firewall application, and setup the firewall so that all connections to Skype are allowed. The Assist Me button at the bottom of the Connection Blocking window will help you creating such a setting.
Thanks - there is not really a good solution here.
- Either I block Skype completely, and then nobody can contact me,
- or I set the connection blocker to "ask", and get an annoying message every few minutes
- or I allow all connections, leaving my computer vulnerable.
Security is more about layers than a one-feature-protects-all. In this case, the firewall—the lowest layer of security—can't do much, since the entire point of Skype is to let unknown people connect to your Mac.
Think of it this way—the firewall is asking the question "Do you trust the person connecting to your Mac?" In this case, you don't know the answer to that. Sometimes you do (like file sharing applications, where only certain people should be connecting to your Mac).
There are other layers of security; e.g. the DeepSight Community blocks known hackers and Vulnerability Protection will block suspicious network activity. So in this case, the firewall can't help you but other features like DeepSight Community and Vulnerability Protection can. So it's safe to let anybody connect to Skype. In fact, that's exactly how I have my Mac setup.
Ryan