Hi all, I have installed a piece of software which requires access to ports 40 and 443. Within this access the application does not work. Is it safe for me to open up ports 80 and 443 on my router? Also, how does Internet Explorer & Firefox communicate on the Internet if these ports are closed on my router? Surely browsers use these ports... so why would another application require that I open the ports? Many thanks, Rav.
Port 80 should already be open, otherwise you wouldn't be able to view these web pages, without some sort of HTTP tunneling. Port 80 is the port that Web Servers listen for, ie when your browsing the internet you need Port 80 to be open otherwise traffic can't be sent or received. Port 443 i believe is TLS / SSL this port is used for secure web browser communication, when viewing a website - for example buying products on the internet, once you goto the "Checkout" or "Buy Now" e.t.c it should take you to a "Secure" webpage, this is basically a website that has an SSL license, its highly encrypted compared to standard HTTP and very resistant to eavesdropping and interception. When you go and buy things on the internet, and are entering your credit card details or bank details or personal information, your browser should have an "icon" of a padlock in the bottom of the browser, this tells you that the webpage is using an SSL or TLS license, ie its a secure webpage. So yes these ports are safe to open and they should be open anyway, however make sure that your program is legitimate and you believe that the program is safe to use, as obviously it intends to use the SSL or TLS port (443) to view secure websites.
The application is for sending SMS text messages from PC to mobile phones. It used port 80 to view a web page for a "credit report"... and it used 443 for sending messages and buying more message credits. I believe the application to come from a safe source so I will go ahead and open 443. Many thanks.
Unless your router is very restrictive, you should be able to access those services on any port without actually doing any port forwarding on your router. Usually home-grade routers only block traffic from the outside coming inward and not vise-versa. In that case you only have to "open" ports when you plan on running an Internet accessible service, like a web or mail server.
