Some questions on port forwarding....

[StoneCold]

Hi guys,

FINALLY got my ADSL line installed today, so I am still a little bit of a noob when it comes to configuring the router with port forwarding. Now I have been to portforward.com to see which ports which games etc use, but what are the benefits of opening those ports ?

1. Will my latency be lower than normal if I opened the correct ports, for the games that I play ?

2. Are there any risks involved (getting hacked) if I do open those specific ports?

3. Are there any common ports that should be open that I am not aware of ?

If anyone can enlighten me on these questions, it will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[masticore]

1. Unlikely. Opening ports allows direct communication from a source to your machine. It does not create a "faster" connection, it only allows direct connectivity.

2. Having a port open is not a security risk unless there is something listening for traffic on that port. If there's no application listening on the port then traffic coming in on the port essentially dies.

3. No. You open ports based on your requirements. By default, most internet traffic is established from your machine and your router will allow connections to other sources. You only need to open ports when you want to allow traffic that is not initiated by your machine to reach your machine.

e.g. when you surf a website your machine is initiating the connection; you don't need port forwarding for this. When you run a webserver on your machine (and you want people to be able to connect to it), the connection is initiated by an outside machine; port forwarding is required in this instance.

 

[Ekhaatvensters]

Port forwarding for gaming is necessary for hosting games. Otherwise its just optional, but it might help, and sometimes you might need it.. not sure about all games, i just play dota

Like masti said, there is no real security risk if you just open ports that the game specifically uses. Ad no special ports you need to open unless you have a use for them.