Is DMZ hosting a security risk?

[BoomAM]

Hi.
Ive been told, by a knowledgable friend, that i will get crap DL speeds in Azureus (Bit-Torrent Client), unless i enable DMZ and put in my PCs IP address. Which ive done, and he was right. He says it by passes the HW firewall, but as a i have ZoneAlarm installed, that that`ll stop any intrusions, should they happen.
Is this sound advice? Or is DMZ a security risk?

 

[JackMDS]

For short period of time, or while you are at system and in control (assuming that no one is specifically after you) the DMZ risk probability would be low.
However leaving it 24/7 sitting in the DMZ is like announcing. ?Here is my Computer Take It?.

:brokenheart:

 

[BoomAM]

Work around?

 

[AFB]

Put it there when you need it ?

 

[WannaFly]

AFAIK you should not see any speed difference by putting yourself in the DMZ. If you did it might've just been luck and likely will be slower again.

 

[Nothinman]

Work around?

Forward the ports BT uses to your PC.

AFAIK you should not see any speed difference by putting yourself in the DMZ. If you did it might've just been luck and likely will be slower again.

No, it does matter to an extent. BitTorrent peers try to connect directly to each other on a set number of ports and this doesn't work with NAT because the router blocks the connection attempts. So you can either forward the ports on the firewall, put yourself in the DMZ which really just forwards every port or deal with the slower speeds.

 

[mboy]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

Work around?

Forward the ports BT uses to your PC.

AFAIK you should not see any speed difference by putting yourself in the DMZ. If you did it might've just been luck and likely will be slower again.

No, it does matter to an extent. BitTorrent peers try to connect directly to each other on a set number of ports and this doesn't work with NAT because the router blocks the connection attempts. So you can either forward the ports on the firewall, put yourself in the DMZ which really just forwards every port or deal with the slower speeds.

YUP!

 

[BoomAM]

Everytime i port forward, my rig crashes running any bit-torrent client after about 10-20mins. My PC doesnt crash otherwise!.

------
Hold on; The DMZ on my router is seperate to my software firewall isnt it?
So if i have DMZ on when im downloading, ZoneAlarm should sort out any problems should it not? Then i can switch off DMZ when im not downloading. Correct?

 

[GFBeach]

BoomAM, I'm set as the DMZ on my home LAN almost all the time. So long as I have ZoneAlarm turned on, network security tests report that my computer ports are in stealth mode. If you're still worried, though, do the Port Forwarding trick people mentioned. When I'm not DMZ I forward some of the ports BitTorrents use to my computer and I'm still able to get speedy download times.