ID:1451135
 
I'm fairly new to the hosting aspect, and I wanted to make sure I'm not getting into something totally out of my reach.

So when I tried to host a game on dreamDaemon, it complained about it not being able to be reached by players.

I know the basic of port forwarding, like how I can open a certain port on my connection so other people can use that to enter my connection.

But once people joins in, are they able to harm my computer in any way shape of form, since they are technically in my connection.

And also, if I shut down the DreamDaemon, will it close all connection that tries to enter into the opened port?
Port forwarding is only as safe as the application that is listening for that port.

BYOND doesn't permit the person accessing the port to do any manipulation of the local server whatsoever by default, so it's pretty safe.

In order for someone to "get in", they have to request a connection with the open port, and an application has to be listening for a specific type of request on that port at the time the connection is made.

So... Basically, to answer your question: No. An open port isn't like an open doorway through your defenses. It's more like a closed, locked door that someone can knock on to get in --provided someone's there to open the door.
In response to Ter13
Ter13 wrote:
Port forwarding is only as safe as the application that is listening for that port.

BYOND doesn't permit the person accessing the port to do any manipulation of the local server whatsoever by default, so it's pretty safe.

In order for someone to "get in", they have to request a connection with the open port, and an application has to be listening for a specific type of request on that port at the time the connection is made.

So... Basically, to answer your question: No. An open port isn't like an open doorway through your defenses. It's more like a closed, locked door that someone can knock on to get in --provided someone's there to open the door.

Does the port number that you choose to forward matter?
it can be any 5 digit number, and it will have the same effect?
Sort of, yeah, but not really. There are a number of ports you don't want to use because they have official designated uses, and others you don't want to use because they have unofficial, but common uses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ List_of_TCP_and_UDP_port_numbers

Functionally, any port above 1024 are okay to use, but you are going to want to avoid a number of ports, such as 8080.

Best bet is just to pick a random port above 1024 that you like, and double-check that nothing noteworthy on your system uses it.
Cloud Magic wrote:
Technically you could knock on the door enough times to crash his server, right?

That would be a Ddos I assume
Not really crash, no. You could use up all the available bandwidth so nothing else can talk to that machine, but you can do you that to anything that has an internet routable address, regardless of port forwarding.

As soon as you stop sending that traffic, service resumes.