Port Forwarding - How Necessary Is It?

Posts: 51

I have had my Vonage service for about two weeks and have experienced the periodic ATA disconnects (about every 3-5 days) with the motorola located in front of the router (SMC 2404WBR). I just moved it behind the router (Optimum Online -> Router -> ATA (LAN), Desktop (LAN), Laptop (LAN), PS2 (via wireless ehternet bridge) and it is working just fine without any port forwarding configured.

My question is this - why do some routers require port forwarding and others are "plug and play" as in my case? The Vonage website even indicates several routers that should work fine with the ATA right out of the box. I do not have the firewall function enabled on my router, however the router is using NAT. Also, because I am not using the firewall function on the router (firmware configuration interface is awful, could never get it right) does this mean that the ATA is still vulnerable to overwhelming port scans? I am generally well versed in computer basics, but not all that knowledgeable in network matters. It would be greatly appreciated if someone could clarify this configuration for me. Thanks in advance! Very Happy

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Posts: 51 · Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2004 10:20 pm Post subject:

I found the shields up site and did the scan, everything passed except for their ping test, which I will look into. I am using sygate personal firewall on my pc with all of the security options enables so I don't know why the ping got through.

Anyway, after reading numerous threads about this issue and UPnP's merits or lack thereof, I can only echo the common posts - If it ain't broke, don't fix it! I just like to know WHY things work the way they do. If you can shed any additional light on the subject I would appreciate it. Thanks again.