Activation (connecting to the net) before Firewall enabled... is it a risk?

[dogrunsthroughit 0]

Hi. I have a question about firewall and product activation of ESET Cyber Security version 8.

So, ECS v8 is now merged with former ESET Cyber Security and former ESET Cyber Security Pro.

This new ECS v8 has firewall, but if clean-installed, the firewall is not enabled until you finish activation of the programme even if you already have a valid ECSPro licence.

That means, you have to access to the internet for the activation while firewall is dead.

The activation would probably only take one minute or less (depending on environment), but this is a very long one minute without the safety functions, specially the internet connection speed is extremely high these days and unwanted applications could accept unwanted incoming/outgoing connections... a lot.

When clean-installing the classic ECSPro with firewall, you didn't need to worry about it, because the firewall is enabled immediately after installation, before you go to the activation process.

So, here is my question: Is the ECS v8 activation design really safe or more risky than the classic  ECSPro?

For your information, I consider it a risk when some Apple's native applications (such as Music, I always block incoming/outgoing traffic) connect to the internet.

[Marcos 5,362]

Prior to installation of ESET CyberSecurity v8, you either have no firewall at all or a 3rd party or macOS firewall so the time between you download ECS v8 and its activation doesn't play any role I'd say. Moreover, in automatic mode all outbound communication is allowed and all inbound communication blocked. If I'm missing something, please elaborate more on what you are concerned about.

[Robertos 33]

V8 firewall will start filter connections that exist in macOS before firewall was running immediately after firewall starts to work. This is not doing by V6 firewall so from this point of view new firewall is more secure that older one.

[daspolfo 0]

Hi.
The MacOs Firewall is still active for me. Is it needed to disabled it ? (No problem at all today)

[Marcos 5,362]

Enabling multiple firewalls on macOS can lead to several issues:

Network Conflicts: Different firewalls might have conflicting rules, leading to blocked connections or disrupted network traffic

Performance Degradation: Running multiple firewalls can consume more system resources, potentially slowing down your Mac.

Configuration Complexity: Managing multiple sets of firewall rules can be confusing and increase the risk of misconfiguration.

It’s generally recommended to use a single, well-configured firewall to avoid these problems.