SECURITY

[chasm24]

I just got a static ip address so that i can share my databases with colleagues in another country. i just gave them the ip address, configured port forwarding on the router and it works great. i'm worried about security though. even though the databases are password protected, i'd like to have another step of security either on the router or on filemaker. any suggestions?

[Wim Decorte]

depending on the quality of your firewall you can limit access to certain IP addresses. Or during certain time slots.

[chasm24]

my users' ip addresses change often though. is there any other way to set up another barrier on my mac before letting people in?

[Steve T.]

Howdy, c! Your mac should have a built-in Firewall accessible from your System Preferences panel (SHARING > FIREWALL) that will help you restrict access but do you use the computer for anything other than serving? Apple lists some suggested ports but you'll have to experiment and see if you lose access to something or see if something stops working right after you enable your firewall. For example, if people are connecting to your databases through the web, you'll probably need to leave that port open (:80, :591, or whatever you're using). If you are sharing through FileMaker itself, you'll have to leave :5003 open... the same as your port forwarding, eh?

Personally, I like to be able to SSH into the computer so I can do things like restart it or check its status so if you use REMOTE LOGIN under SHARING, you'll have to leave that open, too. Anyway, you get the idea. Google search for "port numbers" if you want to see what all the ports are. The IANA site should be first on the list and will have them all.

--ST