I want to know if port forwarding is safe to use just for minecraft, more specifically portforward.com
I'm making a simple modded server just for me and my friends and would not be telling anybody else my computer s IP address, however I'm not willing to have my computer wrecked just to play with my friends…
It would help if I felt secure in port forwarding, because I just won't do it if I don't feel secure.
also, will port forwarding effect any other devices being used on the specific router? Because it would be pretty embarrassing to have my mom knock on my door asking why her Wi-Fi is being weird.
Is port forwarding safe for a minecraft server?
blub 02.04.2016
Port forwarding allows only that port to be open, to the application that uses it. Any hacker would have to know an exploit in MC in order to "get in". Having that port forwarded, and the server NOT running is the same as having the port closed, nothing responds to it.
There's little risk in opening specific ports for specific applications. The only real danger is if there's a security hole in Minecraft that hackers can use…
Port forwarding to to a specific IP address, other devices don't even know about it.
Adrian 03.04.2016
What port forward does is direct unexpected packets of data on port 25565 to your minecraft server. Those packets will go nowhere else on your internal network. This is reasonably safe to do. The danger is in the software on the computer. Minecraft most likely doesn't have any flaws for a hacker to exploit. All unexpected packets of data for other ports are ignored.
David E 03.04.2016