Blog
Guides to what your Mac is connecting to and what you can do about it, written for people who are not network engineers. No jargon, and no assumption that you already know what any of it means.
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A Firewall That Asks You Questions Does Not Work
Approve-or-deny prompts look like the thorough design and reliably produce the opposite. Why prompting firewalls train people to click Allow, and what to build instead.
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Does the Mac Firewall Block Outgoing Connections?
No. The firewall built into macOS blocks only incoming connections, and no setting inside it changes that. Here is what it does cover, and what you need for the other direction.
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Is My Mac Sending Data Somewhere? How to Actually Find Out
Your Mac talks to the internet constantly, and most of it is normal. How to tell ordinary system traffic from an app reporting on you, without guessing.
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How to Block a Website on a Mac, in Every Browser at Once
Browser extensions only cover one browser. Here is how to block a website for everything on your Mac, including apps, and what each method costs you.
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Little Snitch Alternatives: What to Use When the Prompts Wear You Down
Little Snitch is the most capable Mac firewall and the one people most often abandon. The alternatives, what each one trades away, and how to pick by how much attention you have.
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Mac Firewall Comparison: Little Snitch, LuLu, Radio Silence and MiniFirewall
Five Mac firewalls compared on what actually differs between them: whether they interrupt you, what they can block, and who each one is genuinely built for.
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How to See What Apps Are Connecting to the Internet on Your Mac
Four ways to find out what your Mac is talking to, from Activity Monitor to the Terminal to a firewall app, with what each one can and cannot tell you.
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What Mac System Traffic Is Normal? A Guide to the Names You Will See
trustd, nsurlsessiond, mDNSResponder and the rest. What each of these programs is, why it connects to the internet, and which ones you must never block.
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How to Stop an App From Connecting to the Internet on a Mac
The macOS firewall cannot do this. Here are the methods that work, from blocking a whole app to blocking one website and leaving the app running.
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Sending or Receiving: Which Direction Should You Block?
Every firewall asks whether to block connections going out, coming in, or both. What the question means in plain terms, and the right answer for common cases.
MiniFirewall is a Mac app (macOS 13.0 or later, Apple Silicon and Intel) that shows every website and app your Mac is talking to, and blocks any of it with one click. It never interrupts you with pop-up questions: nothing is blocked until you say so. Your traffic stays on your Mac. Nothing is collected, nothing is sold, and there are no ads.