Online Gamers & Net Gurus - Port Forwarding and Online Security (World of Warcraft)

[StoneChucker]

Yeah, I know, always asking for help, hardly ever giving it... One day I'll turn the tables.

It seems the faster and higher tech you go, the more things you have to tweak. This is in regard to World of Warcraft (online game), and the patches it downloads (mostly by peer to peer but also direct http), for me, after I exit the game. After I changed from ihug ADSL broadband with a D-Link DSL-G604T router, to TelstraClear cable broadband with a D-Link DIR-635 RangeBooster router, I noticed that the Blizzard downloader window showed a yellow light, with an error saying you are behind a firewall, and a link to the solution on how to setup popular brands of Firewall software for World of Warcraft. It also had another solution and link to how to setup popular brands of routers to work with World of Warcraft, using port forwarding (called virtual servers on older routers).

So, I setup my firewall software to allow the required sequence/range of ports to be accessed by Blizzard. Then I setup my router's DHCP settings to assign me the same IP address every time (static IP), and finished by setting up port forwarding on my router to allow the required range/sequence of ports to be accessed and directed to my IP address. Sweet, everything's working perfectly now, oddly enough this is not the problem... (btw, D-Link's new routers are really helpful with you being able to choose from preset applications for port forwarding, and World of Warcraft is one of them!)

My question is, is it secure/safe to have port forwarding (on router) and firewall ports access setup in terms of online security? Can this enable someone to gain access to any aspect of my system that they previously would have not been able to?

Should I disable the port forwarding and firewall ports access, and only enable them when I see the Blizzard downloader trying to download more patches? That is pretty simple I think, the router and firewall softwre have a tick next to what you setup, I'm assuming if you remove the tick the settings will stay there, but be inactive?

Cheers

[TerminalAddict]

you shouldn't have ports open unles there is something answering requests.

if it were me, I would open the ports, and point them to your internal IP, then change the IP of your PC when not using blizzard etc .. so when your not using the game, the ports are pointed at a non existent IP address.

easy to swap back and forth between IP addresses to

[MrMelon]

Nah you shouldn't have any problems leaving those ports forwarded for world of warcraft. If anyone tries to access your ip address on those ports all they'll be able to talk to at your end is your world of warcraft updater which will be pretty useless (unless they want to update your game for you heh).

But on a more serious note, don't get sucked into world of warcraft. It's more addictive than crack and I've seen heaps of people disappear into their rooms never to emerge again after taking it up.

[TerminalAddict]

But on a more serious note, don't get sucked into world of warcraft. It's more addictive than crack and I've seen heaps of people disappear into their rooms never to emerge again after taking it up.

agree entirely

[boomer]

theres ways around anything mate, you leave a window open someone's gonna get in.

don't worry none.

[oldguy]

Ive had no problems with port forwarding, you have to when you use the likes of Azureus and u torrent file share programs.

[limbimtimwim]

Leaving the DNAT/forwarding rule on all the time is fine.

People have this funny idea letting traffic 'in' is bad. It's not; having crappy insecure programs listening for requests is.

I don't know anything about the WoW software but if the WoW thingy is not running on your PC, it is not listening, so everything is perfectly safe.

Now if you were to forward the entire range of ports to your desktop PC, and you had not taken steps to stop all stupid software from listening to connections then yes, you'd be asking for it. Stopping all stupid software on Windows is impossible, so you'd never do that.

So yeah, a few ports that are only used for WoW will be fine.

[MOTOXXX]

yea man stay the hell away from wow

if you need to forward ports for other things a good website is

www.portforward.com

[GR81]

paranoia... so funny!
i go one step further... DMZ
saves pissing around forwarding about 57 different ports for various pieces of software.

[StoneChucker]

paranoia... so funny!
i go one step further... DMZ
saves pissing around forwarding about 57 different ports for various pieces of software.

Yeah, I have that option on my router too, I haven't set it up though. Blizzard downloader says that may cause an issue itself, so I'll leave it be for now.

Thanks for the info guys.

[StoneChucker]

Nah you shouldn't have any problems leaving those ports forwarded for world of warcraft. If anyone tries to access your ip address on those ports all they'll be able to talk to at your end is your world of warcraft updater which will be pretty useless (unless they want to update your game for you heh).

But on a more serious note, don't get sucked into world of warcraft. It's more addictive than crack and I've seen heaps of people disappear into their rooms never to emerge again after taking it up.

Haha, yeah I know it can consume you. The hyped up expansion is coming out mid January. I must admit it doesn't take up too much of my time, I only play once a week at the most, sometimes less. I am planning to increase that though, I want to get my level up. Playing with one arm is a little harder, but mainly if you're duelling with another player (that's when fighting AND casting spells is advantageous)...

Thanks for the info.

[bert_is_evil]

Ive had no problems with port forwarding, you have to when you use the likes of Azureus and u torrent file share programs.

ditto
10 char