Q Despite having Microsoft Office applications, iTunes, and DropCopy listed in my firewall settings to allow incoming connections, when I start any of them up I have to dismiss dialogs asking me to let them receive incoming connections. What is happening, and how can I stop these annoying and superfluous alerts from appearing?

A None of these applications uses incoming Internet connections, so this warning is definitely spurious. It has, though, been reported by quite a few users in a wide range of different settings. What is certain is that Office and iTunes attempt to make outgoing connections when they start up, and DropCopy may be doing the same thing.

The next time that you see this alert, check very carefully that it is referring to incoming and not outgoing connections. Many users leave their firewalls set to block all incoming connections, but do not experience alerts or problems of this kind. It is possible that you are being confused by some slightly inappropriate warnings from Little Snitch, which checks to see which software ‘phones home’: something that these applications do. Open System Preferences and you should see Little Snitch there as a pane, if it is installed.

Updated from the original, which was first published in MacUser volume 26 issue 10, 2010.