[X4U] Remote access to sleeping machine

[keith]

Ed

> A friend of mine with a G5 iMac was concerned that, should he leave  
> his sleeping computer with an always on connection to the internet,  
> could someone, somehow, log onto and somehow invade his computer?
> 
> I have remotely connected to _my_ computer, but it has always been  
> awake to start with.
> 
> If one can successfully log onto a sleeping computer, what can one do  
> to immunize oneself from such an occurrence, short of turning off the  
> machine?  I showed him the built-in firewall, but, I suspect I was  
> not clear enough on what to do.
> 

I am not an expert on the Mac firewall, although from everything I've 
read it sounds like it's pretty good.

I do have some experience in the PC security world, and there are 
usually several ways to wake up a sleeping system remotely. Many network 
cards offer this capability as a feature. Ideally the G5 should be 
secured so that it's protected whether it's awake or asleep.

I think the best thing for your friend would be to get a broadband 
router with a built in firewall, *and* keep the G5's firewall on as well.

That would give him 2 levels of protection, and, also, if somebody does 
try to get in, his router logs would let him know, without putting his 
G5 at risk.

-- 
Keith