disabling ICS , "Internet Gateway", UPnP, SSDP

[flexy]

I was always wondering what that "Internet Gateway" or "Internet Connection" 's purpose was above my "Local Area Connection".

We use a router, so i have no deal and interest in a MS "Internet Connection Sharing" configuration.

In this article (sorry if its old news, but it was new to me !)

http://cc.uoregon.edu/cnews/spring2003/upnp.html

they say disable Upnp (on your router), disable "Internet Gateway discovery" and UpNP/SSDP services in WIn XP to get rid
of the "Internet Gateway"

Also talking about overhead and inefficiency since (according to this article) what MS does (as default) is totally unnecessary and adds overhead.

I just wanted to get your input on this.


config:
PC with XP Pro SP2, Laptop XP Home , Linksys Wrtg54G router->cable


Edit:

What i want to know actually is whether the ICS/Gateway entry actually REALLY means more overhead (whatsoever)...or if it does just show the router, since the router, well, is the "internet gatway" shown, UpNP has discovered the router, and well, XP shows it in the "network connections" as a connection - would it really matter in terms of overhead for the network ?

Also..disabling Upnp, SSDP services etc...would it have a disadvantage ?

 

[sswingle]

I don't think you will get better performance by doing that, but it won't hurt anything. Upnp is mostly a security hole, as it will allow programs to open their own ports on the router. Kinda nice if you need a port opened as it will do it for you, but what if a virus or spyware decides to open its own port?? I'd rather just open my own, thank you. But I thought upnp was disabled by default anyways. It always has been for me...

 

[bsobel]

Not much overhead at all. My recommendation is to leave UpNP enabled. While better initial prompting is needed on the client, the convenience factor is very high for letting apps which need incoming ports (IM, games, etc) to auto config them.