Port Triggering vs. forwarding?

[Zario]

Any real advantages here?  There is a chance I'd be running WoW from multiple computers inside my network. 

The community site says "World of Warcraft uses TCP port numbers 1119, 3724, 6112, 6113, 6114, and 4000 to play and UDP port 3724 for in game Voice chat."

Can I just choose any of those as the triggering port, or is one better than another? 

[Docsamson]

I don't have port forwarding set up for WoW at all, and it runs fine on my network.  It even ran fine when I used to be on a network with multiple computers running it at the same time, even with multiple people raiding the exact same raid at the same time.  There may be some marginal gain to it, but if you're not having latency/connectivity issues I wouldn't bother.

[Kothnok]

Afaik, Triggering and Forwarding are only used for outside connections to initiate conversations with your computer without you starting the conversation in the first place.  The Trigger ports are a way to start a program on one of your networked computers and have the router automatically open up certain ports for outsiders to initiate conversations to that computer while you are running that program (think BitTorrent here and you have a good idea what I mean).  The Blizz Downloader will like triggered/forwarded ports, for instance, since others wanting to download the patch will try to connect to other peers (other game players) through some of those ports listed.

In short, as Doc said, playing WoW shouldn't need anything forwarded or triggered since the game itself initiates all conversations with the servers.  If you do set up forwards or triggers, you'll make other people trying to download patches happy, but that's about it.

[Tony]

just do what I do and open them all up

[Shadowwolf]

just do what I do and open them all up

Thats like nails on a chalkboard to my ears reading that statement, haha

[Shadowwolf]

And to clarify, these arent dictionary definitions of the 2 but rather my attempt at basic easy to understand definitions

Port Forwarding = A method of telling your router to pass along traffic destined for a certain port to a specific computer on your internal network. On Firewalls, your internal computer has to initiate a connection to the outside internet in order for the Firewall to know that any inbound traffic from a certain port goes to that machine. If random requests for communication come into the Firewall, without Port Forwarding the firewall will drop the connection because it doesnt know where it goes.

Example: I want to run a web server off my machine from home but my machine sits behind my firewall. HTTP requests to my IP will get routed through my firewall before reaching my machine so I would set up a Port Forward to my computer for any inbound traffic sent to port 80 to go to my computer. When someone tries to connect then, the firewall will automatically know where to pass that request on within my internal network.

Why you would use it: If you are using a computer to serve some "server" like purpose, you would need to make sure all requests to a specific port get passed along properly to the necessary machine. Basically if people on the internet need to use your internal network resources for some reason, you would enable Port Forwarding for the appropriate services.

Port Triggering = Tells the firewall when it detects outgoing traffic on a specific port to open up incoming traffic for specified ports to go directly to <insertmachinehere>, usually the machine making the initial outbound connection.

Example: My computer connects to an IRC server via port 6675, the remote server then sends back a request to my computer on port 113 requesting specific IDENT info. If I dont have Port Triggering enabled then the request from the remote server is ignored by the Firewall since it has no clue where to send it (unless you have all 113 traffic going to your machine with Port Forwarding).

If I set up a Port Trigger on the firewall to open and pass along inbound traffic to port 113 to my computer every time I attempt to make an outbound connection to port 6675, then when the remote server sends the request, the firewall will know where to pass it along.

Why you would use it: Port Triggering is similar to Port Forwarding but keeps your network more secure. Instead of having to allow all network traffic to specific ports automatically and always sent to a specific machine, you basically only open your machine up to those ports when necessary automatically.

Do you need this enabled for WoW on multiple LAN computers? If you have a modern and good firewall/router, no. Most modern home firewall/router combos will handle WoW connections from multiple machines without issue automatically without any need for special setup. If you run a locked down LAN (i.e. corporate work environment) where you have a BOFH like myself when I used to run company networks, then yes, you would need these settings in place to let WoW work. A good network admin with security on the brain will lock down all in and out connections to keep traffic contained and security reliable. It keeps company users from abusing the company internet pipe (t1, etc) using programs like Bittorrent, Limewire, etc etc sucking up bandwidth and it keeps people out of the LAN.

The only time you would need to configure your firewall for these settings for WoW is if you are having connection issues, then it *might* fix them, but in terms of speed and efficiency, there is no difference. These settings wont make things any more reliable or faster for you.

[Tony]

just do what I do and open them all up

Thats like nails on a chalkboard to my ears reading that statement, haha

I figured it woulda rang the bell a bit with some a you networking folk. I've been doin it for years for torrenting, and have not had ONE SINGLE problem. Thank the gods I dont have a static IP.

[Shadowwolf]

Unless you are being specifically targeted by someone, the likelihood of being hacked on a home network connection is very very low. Its mostly marketing hype to sell security products. The only real dangers to a home network is stuff a firewall cant stop like Adware and Spyware.

[Oilslick]

I don't notice any difference in the playability of wow itself.  Where i notice a difference with the ports opened up is in the download times through the blizzard updater - that's it.