Strict NAT

[Casey12141]

Hey,

I have a few questions about networking and MW2. First off, I have a strict NAT and have always had one since I bought the game. How does this affect my ability to find games? It usually takes a while, and I can never invite/connect to most people for private matches.

I have my firewall set up to allow anything I want out, but it blocks just about everything coming in. Is this the cause of my strict NAT? I have NAT open and (I think) everything else enabled on my firewall.

Also, I don't want to open up any ports to the internet without having it covered safely. Is there such a way that I can forward my ports to still be secure, but open up my NAT? My dad said there isn't (he is a Networking Engineer so I trust him, really) but he's been wrong before (once lol). He just told me opening ports is a bad idea. P.S. I looked at some of the logs of what the firewall blocks, and today alone there have been a few attempts to scan my ports and other crap.

Thanks for your answers. I just want to throw out there that I'm a networking noob, so please be easy on me lol.

[Milwaukee]

Open only the ports in the sticky in the main Modern Warfare 2 forum or off the Activision website.

Steam Sticky Port List (http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1019454)

Activision Support (https://activision.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/activision.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=26632&p_created=1257866952&p_sid=I37u*Svk&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_srch=1&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX 3Jvd19jbnQ9MiwyJnBfcHJvZHM9MSwxNTgyJnBfY2F0cz0mcF9 wdj0yLjE1ODImcF9jdj0mcF9zZWFyY2hfdHlwZT1hbnN3ZXJzL nNlYXJjaF9ubCZwX3BhZ2U9MSZwX3NlYXJjaF90ZXh0PW5hdA! !&p_li=&p_topview=1)

They are the ports for most of the CoD titles. This won't be a security issue where you could download viruses unless you are playing a CoD title where you are downloading custom content. I have heard of my friends getting bad mods that contained viruses. But when it comes to MW2, it is not a concern since there is nothing else you can download that isn't official.

If you are that paranoid about hackers/viruses/etc then uninstall and do not worry about it. Does he also have multiple anti-virus programs? lolz.

[Casey12141]

Actually we just use Microsoft Security Essentials. So you're sure that opening the game port won't allow anything else through? Thanks for the input.

[spyrochaete]

Forwarding ports won't make you more susceptible to viruses, but if you already have a virus it might take advantage of an open port (to act as a spam zombie, for example).

The most secure solution is to set up port triggering on your router. This will only open a port when it is triggered by a specific operation such as hosting a game.

[Casey12141]

Thank you spyro, can you give any details/links on explanations of how to do that?
I really appreciate all the help.

[Flaming_Gerbil]

See the stickies at the top of the page.