Quick Question

[Jake.E20]

I may sound really dumb right now but I might as well be better safe than sorry. I have set up port forwarding on a port to my server administration panel. I would like to know is if I have the computer that's port forwarded off will this leave a vulnerability in my network or would it only be open and exploited when the machine is online? I have it port forwarded so I can show it to a friend to help me out tomorrow. Thanks in advance. Jake

[Mira Yurizaki]

All port forwarding does is lets the router know if it receives data from the internet with that specific port which computer on the network to send the packet to. Whether or not it leaves a vulnerability in the receiving PC depends on what's listening to that port on the PC. If the PC has nothing listening on the port, theoretically the network stack on the PC's OS should reject the incoming packet.

[Mikensan]

When somebody hacks or exploits, it is the service/application that's being attacked. It's like a driveway leading up to a house, by opening the port you made the driveway - turning the computer off is the same as disappearing the house. Weird analogy but it's the best I got lol.