[veryniceguy2002]

I just got a cable router with SPI firewall capability, and I would like to know is that any resources on the web (or put in the information as a reply to this thread) which teach me which input and output port and so on should I open up for my SPI firewall, which allows me to surf the web, ftp, telnet, RealPlayer and Windows Media, QuickTime and other common net used protocol, while keeping other ports closed to minimises hacking from the net?

Thanks in advance.

[ghporter]

It actually kind of depends on what router you got. Some boxes make it easy to figure out what you need to open, while others just sit there and block everything and make you dig into the applications you want to use to figure out the ports. Brand A might have a log that tells you what ports your software tried to use, while Brand C might just keep that information to itself and not report it. (Though a router with SPI really should have a log.)

In some cases you'll have to play with the applications anyway, because they don't necessarily use specific ports for both incoming and outgoing traffic.

You can check out Practically Networked to see if they have some sort of comprehensive listing of ports used by specific applications-I haven't looked there very thoroughly, but it's the most logical place to be able to find that sort of thing.