Is my router secure?

[jonnyboysmithy]

It will disturb anything which uses uPnP to automatically forward ports, which for many people, is nothing much at all. It won't cause any problems unless you're accessing your printer externally, which I imagine you are not. Torrent client and VNC servers will generally use uPnP; IM clients may use them.

Bottom line: if something needs uPnP, you can manually create a rule to forward the ports.

In that case I shouldn't have any problems. Thanks!

[spynappels]

Bottom line: if something needs uPnP, you can manually create a rule to forward the ports.

+1 to this, from memory, I had to do this for Skype at one site, but I can't remember the details, but do check things like that as Grenage said.

[Killer Jacker]

+1 to this, from memory, I had to do this for Skype at one site, but I can't remember the details, but do check things like that as Grenage said.

yeah... +1 too...
every port fowarding MUST be doing in the router setup, not using uPnP

[jonnyboysmithy]

I didn't need to setup any ports manually (uPnP is off) and skype worked no problem. Yay!!

[Ashtechsmith]

WPA PSK and WPA Personal is the same. They just call the same thing with different names.

Why is the process so convoluted ? It's a very simple request, you'd think it would be an obvious Option like

Make Network Secure-Enabled ? yes/no;

Choose Password

Once you have chosen WPA with preshared key it is that simple. You just enter the passphrase. Historically you just have WEP as well. That's why there is WEP as well. And for larger enterprise setups you use RADIUS server authentication. That's why you find "WPA Enterprise" or "WPA RADIUS" (which are the same thing again). If you used WEP it would be more complicated.

Obviously your computer gets kicked out the moment you set the WPA passphrase because your computer does not know the passphrase and with passphrase in place only computers which know the passphrase are supposed to connect. You have to reconnect to your protected network. Remove the network from the list of preferred networks. Then search for available networks again, pick your network and the computer should automatically ask for the passphrase and then you are in.

[samiux]

My ISP was blocking ports. I asked them to unblock the ports so now we have set all of the port blocking handling to the router we have here at home.
So my question is, is my system secure? Anything I should be aware of?
And if my computer isn't behind any sort of firewall, just straight connected to the Internet (demilitarized zone?) is it secure? does it impose any security risks?
I'm running ubuntu 12.04 and the others in the house are using windows 7
Btw I have uPnP enabled.
Sorry for being such a noob..

I would like to tell you that there are some tools out there for pwning a router. This video is talking about a tool namely "rotuerpwn".

Samiux

[needhelppeeps]

Turnoff upnp, restrict router management from the outside world and wifi and lock it down to a single physical port if possible, place the firewall in a locked room or rack, turn off any ports that you don't need open, enable IPS/AV features, don't try to run public services from your internal network.