Router gaming security

[Humphries]

Hi, I've tried looking this up online but recently I got Steam and DayZ (a game) and when I launched it I couldn't find any servers. I did a bit of research and was told to turn off my router firewall, so I did and the game now works fine. I'm pretty sure thats what the problem was. I'm guessing that turning off the firewall was probably a bad idea in terms of security though? What would be the best method for me? Thanks.
I have a tecnicolour router from telstra by the way.

 

[smakme7757]

Normally a game would be "asking" for servers and all home router firewalls are designed to allow all outgoing communication.

It seems like the game instead relies on the server contacting the client which just doesn't make sense.

Anyhow you can try opening these ports

• 2302 UDP ArmA2 game network communication.
• 2303 UDP Gamespy public server reporting.
• 2305 UDP Voice Over Net transmission.

Source: http://support.dayzmod.com/knowledgebase.php?action=displayarticle&id=11

 

[John Connor]

Turn back on your firewall and just forward those ports mentioned and see what happens.

 

[Humphries]

Thanks so much. I thought about doing that but I wanted to know what you guys do. I don't normally game on pc, so I am a little unsure. So, basically, if you have trouble connecting on any given game, you just open the ports specfic to it? Any risk in leaving them open 24/7 like I assume everyone does?

 

[Humphries]

I've changed my firewall settings back to the 'standard' settings. I haven't opened the ports but I will if it doesn't work, I want to test it again, to see if it wasn't something else disrupting it. I can't test it at the moment though, as my pc with dayz on has a faulty psu, but I will test as soon as it gets sorted. Thanks for your help, I'll make sure I bookmark this page, so I don't lose the port numbers. Thanks again!

 

[ConradGoodmanIT]

There is nothing wrong with opening the ports you need, assuming they are the correct ports and in the correct direction.

For additional security forward these ports only to the internal IP address of the machine you are using, this way they aren't generally open in NAT.

 

[Mushkins]

Thanks so much. I thought about doing that but I wanted to know what you guys do. I don't normally game on pc, so I am a little unsure. So, basically, if you have trouble connecting on any given game, you just open the ports specfic to it? Any risk in leaving them open 24/7 like I assume everyone does?

That's correct, you just open ports as needed. Is there risk in opening ports? Yes, but it's very minimal as long as you're aware of what you're doing. The security risk from an open port is a two-part issue. The outside attacker needs to know and identify the open port, AND something inside, on your PC needs to specifically be listening for an incoming connection on that port. Most exploits taking advantage of open ports focus on things that are on known, set ports (things like HTTP, RDP, SSL, etc). Anything on the higher ports would need both the port to be open in the firewall, and some sort of custom software like a virus to be installed on that PC and specifically listening on that port.

Long story short, only open what you need and you'll be fine.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Does Forwarding ports also effect the Sending of packets from the game?

 

[John Connor]

No.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

What I mean is does port forwarding effect only the receiving side, and not the transmitting side? Like it only works for incoming traffic.. or does it help for traffic going both ways ...