Overview

FireWally is a simple and powerful firewall app for macOS that gives you complete control over your app’s internet connections.

It allows you to monitor and manage inbound and outbound traffic for every application, helping to protect your privacy, reduce data usage, and identify suspicious network activity with a clear, user-friendly interface.

Granting permission

To get FireWally working fully, you need to enable its Network Extension in your macOS System Settings. This process typically needs to be completed only once after initial installation.

When you launch FireWally and it does not have the necessary access, you will see this message:

This indicates that the necessary network component is not yet active.

Follow these steps to enable the extension:

1. Click Enable Extension in the main firewall window.
2. A system prompt will appear titled “FireWally” would like to Filter Network Content. Click Allow.
3. Next, you may see a prompt titled “FireWally” that would like to use a new network extension. Click OK.
4. After the initial prompts, a window with a guide will appear. Click Open System Settings.
5. This action will take you directly to the System Settings → General → Login Items & Extensions →Network Extensions category.
6. Enable the switch button for FireWally. If needed, confirm by providing your user password.

Once the switch is blue and you have clicked Allow, FireWally is fully enabled and ready to protect your Mac’s network traffic.

Monitor network activity

To monitor traffic for a specific application with FireWally, do the following:

1. Click the FireWally icon in your menu bar to open its main window.
2. Instantly view which apps are online and the total traffic.
3. Hover over the icon next to the traffic indicator to see the incoming and outgoing traffic.
4. View your total data usage at the bottom of the window.

View traffic history

You can view your data usage history by selecting a different time period from the tabs at the top of the main window.

The Real-time tab is useful for quickly identifying which apps are actively using data right now.

The Hour tab shows a detailed overview of traffic statistics for the current hour.

The Today tab shows a comprehensive report of all traffic that has passed through your Mac over the current 24 hours. This gives you a complete picture of your daily data consumption.

These historical tabs provide both the total “In” and “Out” traffic as well as a per-app breakdown, so you can easily see what’s using the most data over time.

Control app internet access

FireWally gives you full control over which applications can connect to the internet. To manage an app’s network access, simply locate the toggle switch on the right side of its name in the application list.

• When the switch is blue, the app’s internet access is enabled. The application is free to send and receive data.
• When the switch is gray, the app’s internet access is disabled. The application is blocked from all inbound and outbound network connections.

This one-click control allows you to instantly block any app you find suspicious or to prevent data-heavy applications from consuming bandwidth and data in the background, especially when you are on a limited data plan.

Pinning the window

FireWally offers a convenient Pin feature. When pinned, the app’s window will always remain on top of other windows, even when you switch to different apps. This is ideal for real-time monitoring, allowing you to keep an eye on your network activity and data usage (In/Out totals) without constantly minimizing and restoring the application.

How to pin the window

1. Open the FireWally from the menu bar.
2. Click the Pin icon (which looks like a small pushpin 📌)

To return the window to normal behavior (allowing other applications to cover it), simply click the Pin icon again.

Uninstallation guide

In case you need to uninstall or reinstall the application, follow these steps:

1. Quit FireWally. For this, click the gear icon in the top-right corner of the app`s window and select the Quit option.
2. Open your Applications folder and move FireWally to the Trash.
3. For complete removal, clear related files from the ~/Library folder. For this, press Cmd+Shift+G to open the Go to Folder box.
4. Navigate to the following folders and remove from there all files and subfolders related to com.nektony.Firewall:
   • ~/Library/Containers/
   • ~/Library/Application Scripts/
   • ~/Library/Application Support/com.apple.sharedfilelist/
   • /Users/adsa/Library/Containers/com.nektony.Firewall
   
5. Empty your Trash.

Another option to quickly and completely uninstall FireWally is to use App Cleaner & Uninstaller.

If you have questions or need assistance, please contact Nektony support. Our team is ready to help you get the most from FireWally.