10.4: How to use BrickHouse firewall GUI

Dec 20, '05 05:39:00AM

Contributed by: SimonDorfman.com

Tiger only hintBrickHouse is a very nice GUI for Apple's built-in firewall. The only problem I've had with it is that it hasn't been updated for OS X Tiger (10.4) since the pre-release days. Everything seems to work fine, except for the startup script.

Read on for a step-by-step guide to getting around this problem.

Here's what you need to do.

  1. Open BrickHouse.
    1. Note the title of the window that opens. It's on the very top of the window in the middle. My window title is "Quick Configuration: AllowOnlyPorts80and22". You will need this information below.
    2. Click on the padlock icon.
    3. Enter your user name and password and check the "Store in Keychain" box.
  2. Download and install Scenario ($10 shareware).
    1. Install for current user.
    2. Open System Preferences and click on Scenario (it's at the bottom, in the Other category).
    3. In the General tab, press the On button.
    4. In the Log-in & Out tab, check the 'Run scripts when user logs-in' box.
  3. Open Script Editor (/Applications -> Applescript -> Script Editor) and paste this code into a new document.
  4. Replace both instances of Quick Configuration: AllowOnlyPorts80and22 with your window title, which you noted during step 1a.
  5. Try clicking the Run button in Script Editor, to make sure it's working. Save the AppleScript here: ~/Library -> Scenario Script Launcher Folder -> Login Scripts -> BrickHouseActivate.scpt
That's all there is to it. Try rebooting, and watch to make sure your script runs at startup as planned. If anyone has suggestions for improvement, please speak up in the comments. While I've only tested this on Tiger, it should work on Panther also. But there's another workaround someone posted in the comments at VersionTracker that should work with OS 10.3.9.

[robg adds: I haven't tested this one...]

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Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20051212170356106