Question regarding forwarded port(s) - then and now

[seedUpsy]

Greetings,

Long time lurker - 1st time poster.

I've been using Utor for a while now and have never had any problems whatsoever. I leech, I seed, the world goes around - I love it.

I am curious though, when I first started using Utorrent (over a year ago) and using the port-forwarding guide I would forward one port, I would create a single rule in my firewall for said port and viola! no worries - dl speeds at 95-98% of my advtsd speed. All through that single port (in & out).

Then I took a break from it for a while, upgraded my firewall (& Utorrent) in the meantime, and the next thing I know I'm creating several rules for Utorrent. I have to, if I try the singular port rule from before I log hundreds (& hundreds) of blocks on all these other ports; 53, 80, and many in the 1000-2000 range. So I make the rules to accommodate, and all is well.

Now mind you, with the new rules in place Utorrent runs great and I have no complaints whatsoever - just wondering: why? Why does Utorrent need all of these ports when it didn't before? Or, am I doing something wrong?

Thanks for taking the time, much obliged.

seed U. psy

[GTHK]

It's quite simple actually, just like you have a single listen port, so do other people. When you try to contact them, you use their port, and vice versa . And since some firewalls also pick up on outgoing ports...

[seedUpsy]

Why thank you GTHK,

That seems to make perfect sense. But lemme ask you this: am I crazy, or did I actually used to use just the single port in/out?

I would swear that I did all of my torrenting through 36663, in and out.

Now I'm in on 36663, out on 1025-65535, udp out on 53, so on and on.

Buddy of mine says all these rules of mine are unnecessary as only a single port is required. Told him to eat my shorts since my speeds are abysmal without them.

I'm just curious mind you, I'm perfectly happy with my up/down, just trying to settle a dispute.

Thanks again for your time.

Utorrent rules all :cool:.

[GTHK]

Either your non upgraded firewall ignored outgoing, or you set a rule to allow all outgoing. Setting all ports outgoing ok should prevent future messages, some firewalls call this acting as a server or being a server. The only issue after that then is when firewalls claim its sending e-mails when it's not (just because some people use e-mail ports to avoid ISP blocks, avast! mangles outgoing packets because of this), the default option in µT is to ignore those ports, and for some reason the standard BT ports, to stop people making threads like "utorrent is sending e-mails???". I disabled that option.

[seedUpsy]

The only thing I can think of is that maybe I did have an "allow all outgoing" for Ut and therefore was not logging anything other than the traffic on my forwarded port. But I would've sworn that Ut wasn't even trying to use anything but the one - and that my only rule was "allow in/out on 36663".

I suppose I should've paid more attention at the time .

All of my FW rules are app-specific so I don't get any confusion about what's doing what, so I got that going for me...which is nice.

Thanx again, G!

[jewelisheaven]

Some clients request connections on ports other than your listening port.... In truth you can accept all incoming and outgoing connections for utorrent.exe

But if you're security conscious you only really need INBOUND rules for your listening port, but SHOULD allow outbound connections to all IPs on all PORTs. Can I ask if you also allow in/out UDP 36663 which allows you to be a dht node?

[seedUpsy]

Surely, here's my Utor policy:

Allow TCP/UDP in from 1025-65535 to 36663

Allow TCP out from 1025-65535 to 1025-65535

Allow UDP out from 36663 to 1025-65535

Allow TCP out from (1000-5000) any to 80 (http)

Allow UDP out from (1000-5000) to 53 (dns)

Block (& log) all others

This works like a charm for me - while blocking the oddballs .

Q: if one were to allow all in/out - what's the point of forwarding a singular port? Unless this is just a requisite for efficient DL speeds.

Q: so my buddy who claims to use only one port for all of his torrenting is mistaken/full of cr@p?

[jewelisheaven]

Heh spiffy. The only lenient rule I would comment on is allow all ports for TCP out... you only need your listening port, but if your firewall likes to popup on you, it saves you that clicking

What firewall is this which seems very easy to configure? Perhaps you can list it and specify the steps you went through so it can be added to the Software Firewalls Configuration thread

[seedUpsy]

I'll give you a hint - check the avatar ...

(btw, I modified my post to current rules - I went from memory before, then actually checked=P)

It's Comodo CFP3 (with D+Hips) which I absolutely swear by (though some find this firewall to be too complex and overly protective at first) and recommend to anyone looking for a really tight, customizable firewall (w/Host Intrusion Prevention System) that not only keeps things from gettin' in, but out as well.

Within the Comodo Forums you'll find intensive tutorials for Utorrent/CFP3 with an assortment of configurations to accommodate just about anyone's needs. These happen to be mine (a slightly different version of the main tutorial posted - by pandlouk).

[Ultima]

http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?pid=292343#p292343

[seedUpsy]

Yep, I saw that thure. Yet another interesting variation.