Run behind any cheap off-the-shelf router with a firewall embedded, and ensure that you don't use port forwarding to your machine unless absolutely necessary. If you need to port forward, do it on a second machine that doesn't contain any of your code, and segregate that physically (i.e. not on the same network/behind the same router) as your code machine. That'll keep out probably 99.9% of people who might try to sniff your system.
To study up on security auditing, there's always a handful of good books, although I haven't personally read any in years (on security specific topics for Windows) so I can't make any recommendations offhand. You could also consider looking at certification study guides for various security certs, those have some decent introductory information usually (but the certs themselves are vastly overrated IMHO).
Indie computer security
Run behind any cheap off-the-shelf router with a firewall embedded, and ensure that you don't use port forwarding to your machine unless absolutely necessary.
Then I checked my router, and sure enough, there are open ports from games and torrents long ago. So this whole exercise was a success.
Thanks ApochPiQ!
Run behind any cheap off-the-shelf router with a firewall embedded, and ensure that you don't use port forwarding to your machine unless absolutely necessary.
Then I checked my router, and sure enough, there are open ports from games and torrents long ago. So this whole exercise was a success.
Thanks ApochPiQ!
Reminds me I have an old TF2 port open as well. Should probably close it. 
Kinda hijacking the thread but... does port forwarding actually does anything to your online game "experience" ? If it shaves off 20ms of ping then its not worth it to me (im on the high 200s most of the time).
Kinda hijacking the thread but... does port forwarding actually does anything to your online game "experience" ? If it shaves off 20ms of ping then its not worth it to me (im on the high 200s most of the time).
Generally if you're just a client of multiplayer games, you don't need to explicitly open/forward any ports at all. NAT should automatically set up all the forwarding.
If you have a firewall, which is set to block all ports by default, then you may need to tell it that you're intending to use a particular port... but nice ones will ask you (e.g. the basic Windows firewall pops up a dialog when you play a new MP game for the first time, asking if you'd like to block or allow that port.
If you're hosting a server for game, then you may need to forward ports, because when a client tries to connect to you by IP address, NAT hasn't occurred yet, so your home router will see their connection attempt as spam (you haven't contacted them first, so why are they contacting you?) and discard it. In these cases, you need to explicitly tell your router to forward this port on to your PC, so these unsolicited messages will make it to your game server.
Kinda hijacking the thread but... does port forwarding actually does anything to your online game "experience" ? If it shaves off 20ms of ping then its not worth it to me (im on the high 200s most of the time).
Port forwarding has nothing to do with latency. All it does is tell your router or system firewall "let me initiate a remote connection on outgoing port X and optionally translate said port to some other port Y" or (more likely) "let a remote host initiate a connection to my computer on incoming port X and optionally translate said port to some other port Y".
Basically, if you host a server and are behind a router, you'll most likely have to do some port forwarding, otherwise your router will deny anyone outside your network the ability to connect to your server. In general, most home routers by default let you connect to anything on any port, but do not let anything at all connect to you (which is not necessary for everday internet usage but only needed when you want to host a public service on your home network, which is by the way not recommended outside of the occasional game server as residential lines are not designed for this, in fact some ISP's will forbid you from doing so). Business or school routers, on the other hand, are stricter, due to security concerns.
This is really annoying because gamers around the world will typically just throw the same generic advice at people, "have you forwarded your ports", which is useless advice. Port forwarding is an all-or-nothing situation. If it's not configured right, you won't just lag, it simply will. not. work. at. all. And furthermore, allowing incoming connections on various ports on a home router is a security risk. And usually, unless you are hosting, you do not need to touch your ports as most people have it already set up by default. At least I've never had to.
So, no, unless your router has the horsepower of a pocket calculator, port forwarding should not affect latency. It will simply enable/prevent you to connect (or host).
^ and as Hodgman said above, computers behind a same router share the same IP, so unless you have told the router to "forward incoming stuff on port 1874 on my computer", it won't know where to send it inside the network and so will just discard it (or route it to the DMZ, if you have set that up)
Now UPNP is a different matter, though..
Ahhh, I understand now. Thanks for the answers! Imaginary +1s to both of you.
That would be a +i then 
But he said for both = -1
Ahhh, I understand now. Thanks for the answers! Imaginary +1s to both of you.
That would be a +i then
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