the forums at degreez.net

I have a Linksys Wireless-G Broadband Router Model: WRT54G at home and windows 2000 on my computer. I told my dad about port forwarding but he wont do it because of the "risk" even though i have read many posts that there is a very small risk of getting anything when port forwarding ports 6881-6999, is there any way i can convince my dad to do it? is there any way i can do something so that i can download and upload at a high speed? i used to get very high speeds all untill we got this router, 300kb/s now i get max 10. My ISP is COX on the west coast of the US. If anyone knows how to ocnvince my dad or any advice of what i could do please..... thanks.

-LAkerMAN2k
-lakerman2k@cox.net

To Lakerman's father: How do you do, sir. I'd like to inform you that "opening ports" is not a risky affair so long as you don't open everything. Users have experienced security problems because they had allowed access to ports for server functions, such as port 80 for web service or 149 for NetBIOS, where there were holes in software that users never updated because they didn't use it. Opening ports in the range below 5000 is potentially risky. Above that range, if moderation is used to select the ports, it is in my opinion quite safe for you to open them.

Please note that closing a port does not prevent outside connections, but only prevents an outside machine from initiating the connection. In the case of BitTorrent, this is harmful to its function; you can see why at: http://bt.degreez.net/firewalled.html. The software operates much better when it has a server port available.

Yes, lakermans dad, the reason bittorent is so popular because it is safety wise, not an issue, so there should be no problems in opening those ports. Yes you probably have a "fear" but it is something that has to be put in the back of your mind and not worried over.