Universal Plug and Play ROCKS!

[UNCjigga]

Somehow one of my Azureus plugins got hosed so I had to do a full uninstall/reinstall and ended up upgrading to the latest version. Apparently the new version has a UPnP plugin that can talk to UPnP compatible routers (provided UPnP is enabled in WinXP.) I don't know how it works, all I know is that I no longer have to put bittorrent settings in my router! Basically I pick the port in Azureus, and Azureus talks to the router, opening up that port and ensuring its routed to the right computer!

My only question is, when will all software be like this? Instant Messenger is notorious for needing ports when doing file transfers and voice chat, etc. I'm always going into the router to reroute ports to different computers etc. I don't know what the security implications of UPnP are, but if its safe, I want all my software to make use of it!

 

[The Stigenator]

i have never had 2 do that

 

[zimu]

i just made my computer the DMZ host, never need to worry about ports and upnp and all that jazz.

 

[Anubis]

Whats UPnP?

 

[Shivatron]

Originally posted by: zimu
i just made my computer the DMZ host, never need to worry about ports and upnp and all that jazz.

Doesn't putting your computer in the DMZ remove any firewall protection offered by your router?

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: The_good_guy
i have never had 2 do that

same

 

[TwiceOver]

Originally posted by: Atticu5

Originally posted by: zimu
i just made my computer the DMZ host, never need to worry about ports and upnp and all that jazz.

Doesn't putting your computer in the DMZ remove any firewall protection offered by your router?

Yup

 

[FelixDeCat]

Originally posted by: Anubis
Whats UPnP?

Plug and play, but universal. Heck, I dont know.

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

UPnP is just a software way to handle opening ports on the router. Instead of having to manually open and close ports on your router when you want to use an app, the app communicates with WinXP which then takes care of opening and closing the port transparently to you. It's very handy for something like bittorrent.

 

[stonecold3169]

Originally posted by: RaynorWolfcastle
UPnP is just a software way to handle opening ports on the router. Instead of having to manually open and close ports on your router when you want to use an app, the app communicates with WinXP which then takes care of opening and closing the port transparently to you. It's very handy for something like bittorrent.

Hrm, isn't this horribly dangerous? What stops a trojan or some nasty form of spyware/adware from just telling your router to open up some arbitrary port for use on your system?

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

Originally posted by: stonecold3169

Originally posted by: RaynorWolfcastle
UPnP is just a software way to handle opening ports on the router. Instead of having to manually open and close ports on your router when you want to use an app, the app communicates with WinXP which then takes care of opening and closing the port transparently to you. It's very handy for something like bittorrent.

Hrm, isn't this horribly dangerous? What stops a trojan or some nasty form of spyware/adware from just telling your router to open up some arbitrary port for use on your system?

The short answer is the WinXP firewall or whatever other firewall you have on each individual computer.

 

[stonecold3169]

Originally posted by: RaynorWolfcastle

Originally posted by: stonecold3169

Originally posted by: RaynorWolfcastle
UPnP is just a software way to handle opening ports on the router. Instead of having to manually open and close ports on your router when you want to use an app, the app communicates with WinXP which then takes care of opening and closing the port transparently to you. It's very handy for something like bittorrent.

Hrm, isn't this horribly dangerous? What stops a trojan or some nasty form of spyware/adware from just telling your router to open up some arbitrary port for use on your system?

The short answer is the WinXP firewall or whatever other firewall you have on each individual computer.

So basically, if the port is specified open by the software firewall, it will open it on the router as well Hmm... that still seems like a potential leak to me, although at least in that case you still have hardware protection coming in, you need to be breached from within kinda for it to hurt you (ie, once it's in your system it can reak havoc with your software firewall basically killing your hardware defense too.)