Bare minimum of open ports etc?

[OldePhart]

I know that I have to set my router to do port forwarding to the machine running the Subsonic server, but I'm trying to keep the number of "open" ports to a bare minimum.

My current set up is working - but I believe I may have left more ports open than I need. I shall not enumerate them, out of paranoia.

On Windows, one sets up a "port number" (in the launcher on the notification bar) - apart from this, do any other ports need to allow forwarding to the host machine?

If I had the server on an old PC running linux, which was used for nothing else, and my port forwarding was only to that machine, would I be right in assuming that the security threat to the rest of my home network would be minimal? Are there relatively safe and unsafe choices for ports to elect?

I'm sorry if these are stupid questions, I've always dealt with port-forwarding issues by not allowing any, up until now. My security has always appeared to be adequate, but it's never had to deal with running a server before and now that the initial thrill of getting Subsonic to work is starting to wear off, I'm worried about security threats. Well, I am an old fart: we're allowed to be nervous.

Any advice?

Thanks,

Nick (Oldephart)

[BKKKPewsey]

As far as SS is concerned only the designated port that you have selected has to be open.
However if you are using your server as a web server then obviously port 80 will need to be open as well.
However that is normally open by default.

[OldePhart]

Thanks,

I'll adjust accordingly.

Nick

[OldePhart]

Interestingly, when I set it up to use port 7195 (I picked the number out of the air) it stopped working, but it seems happy with 4040.
There be curious majick afoot here.

Thanks again.

Nick

[ytechie]

Just by the way, some random ports are blocked by Google's Chrome and Mozilla's Firefox because they are claimed to be unknown ports, and therefore dangerous. I run into this problem fairly often and it stumps me every time.

[GJ51]

808X always seems to work/ I've got a few 809X's as well that are fine for http. I use 44X and 45X for https and have never had any problems.

On Windows.

[OldePhart]

Thanks, both.

My new challenge is trying to get java to install on damnsmall linux, so that I can use an ancient laptop as a dedicated Subsonic server. If this works, it will be interesting to see which ports can be used: there will not be any other applications running on the system.

Isn't it (Subsonic) great? I'm burning up my GSM allowance at the moment by showing everyone my 'phone: "This is streaming off the PC in my study *at home* !!" It's like having Radio OldePhart in my pocket.

Kind wishes,

Nick