Jarzinho Posted January 17, 2006 Report Share Posted January 17, 2006 is it risky to open a port for mutorrent or a series of them for bittornado?any thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Switeck Posted January 17, 2006 Report Share Posted January 17, 2006 A dumb computer connected to the internet cannot get infected from the internet.Likewise, a program correctly programmed to simply ignore any traffic that doesn't make "sense" to it cannot get infected from the internet. Unfortunately there's 2 exceptions to this:1.If the program allows you to download and run viruses...and then it's partially your own fault for running an unknown program without running it through anti-virus software.2.If the net-using program automatically downloads and runs viruses...or trojans possibly disguised as upgrades. (Microsoft has been doing the latter for years, but strangely almost nobody makes a big deal of it.)So because your computer is probably running Microsoft software on it, it is by its very nature vulnerable to upgrades...I mean trojans...and possibly viruses as well. However if the ip ports exposed to the internet are not ones used by any Microsoft programs in their current configuration then there should be no appreciable decrease in security by opening the ports for use with µTorrent....which unfortunately is another way to say you don't really have much security to begin with. But actually a good software firewall or router will block almost all the nasties out there. However it won't block the ones you actively seek out. So if you surf porn or software "cracks and hacks", you'll probably get something nasty to boot.This is one of the reasons why you should make back-ups occassionally. You never know when Microsoft software might break itself even without outside help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jarzinho Posted January 17, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2006 cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sergiorodrigues Posted January 17, 2006 Report Share Posted January 17, 2006 sorry for asking this, as i have never had a router, but if utorrent is using a "random port" wouldnt you have to open all ports so utorrent could function ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackLion Posted January 17, 2006 Report Share Posted January 17, 2006 No sergioi, the random feature uses UPnP so only the chosen port would be opened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vectorferret Posted January 17, 2006 Report Share Posted January 17, 2006 But UPnP is pretty volatile with actually working (I think this is mostly the router/windows' fault). If UPnP works for you, do that with a random port. If not, pick one port that isn't a dangerous one and stick with that one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Firon Posted January 17, 2006 Report Share Posted January 17, 2006 Or if you're DMZed, or have no router, you could use the random feature too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackLion Posted January 17, 2006 Report Share Posted January 17, 2006 Yeah, that too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.