Port Forwarding Dangerous?

[reaper896]

Hi, hope I've posted in the right section and that this hasn't been answered before. Anyway, I want to open a port so that uTorrent can download faster and better but my dad believes opening a port will open the gates of hell and allow anyone to do what they will to our computers (steal info, let in viruses, ect.) Is all that true or am i safe if i open one port on my router? If in opening a port for uTorrent does harm me, is there a safe alternative that allows uTorrent to be a full strength? Once again, sorry if this has been answered somewhere else.

Thanks in advance.

[jewelisheaven]

Opening one port for a specific purpose is as safe as anything else on the internet. If you had to open a port for HTTP traffic it would be the same. Unless you have something running and accepting connections on that one port you are forwarding, it's the same as a null connection... nothing responds, the connection is terminated.

Did you have questions regarding the Setup Guide?

[reaper896]

Thanks for the reply, and I believe i know how to forward a port correctly. So just to be clear, forwarding a port for uTorrent won't let unwanted guests in and it's safe.

[jewelisheaven]

Correct. Unless you are listening on that port, it's like talking into a dead phone receiver Did you or your pop have any other questions?

[iLOL]

about Port-Fowarding...

immagine your house door,

a STEALTH door = nobody knows where you live and youre safe (in this case HACKERS donno you exist either)

a CLOSED door = they know where you live, they come to your house but cannot come in because the door is closed they gonna need to break the lock and enter (kinda lots of work for a hacker but it's doable if he's good)

an OPEN door = your door is wide open any thief will enter easily (hacker work will be piece of cake)

to conclude, Port-Fowarding is dangerous only when you start using UTORRENT (or any other program on that port) because that's when the port is wide open to all.

in practice if you're on ADSL you don't have to worry much, if you're on CABLE you going to have to be alert since you share the same node with everyone this becomes easier for attacks, and regardless make sure you have a good Antivirus in case something that wasn't supposed to, better safe than sorry.

been using Torrents for 3 years and never had any attack nor virus, infact i've never had a virus in the last 8 years, no worms, trojans or else.

antiviruses these days are free too, so it's no excuse not to run a decent one, AVOID the antivirus AVG its a poor antivirus, go for ANTIVIR or AVAST and their detection is top notch + they're all free.

i use NOD32 but you must pay for it, it is the best money can buy.

if you run an Antivirus then port-forward and relax.

most attacks these days are targeted to big companies or websites or banks, hackers prefer to waste their time on something that will give 100% something in return, chasing a user is a waste of time, you are more likely to get raped by using INTERNET EXPLORER downloading something thanks to it's unsecure nature than opening or forward your port.

my 0.02$

[reaper896]

Ok, thanks for the info. Also i currently have Comcast High Speed and use Bitdefender.

[Switeck]

Don't neglect Process Explorer and HijackThis! tools! They can find what typical antivirus/antispyware software misses...either because the virus/spyware is too NEW (and not known to the antivirus) or because the virus/spyware knocks out the antivirus/antispyware software.