Zonealarm pro and UPnP

Hi,

Not new to computing but firewalls confuse me. I have 3 computers. 2 use Zonealarm free and one uses Zonealarm Security Suite. The free versions allow UPnP to work fine and each machine can see my UPnP router. The PC with Zonealarm pro 7 however will not see the router as a UPnP device. When i switch off Zonealarm everything works so i know its that stopping it.

Have tried allowing in expert mode UDP incoming/outgoing on port 1900 and same for TCP 2869, but it still wont see the device when i open network neighbourhood. Any Idea's?

I have read some threads that say switch off UPnP and some that say use it. Why the difference of opinion? I use Bitlord and Bitcomet so anything to help these applications run better would be much appreciated

 

On the Zone Alarm pro, I could not find anything unless you are using XP SP 1 where the TCP port is 5000.
Also I saw that ZA 5 has an UPnP option under the administration > Management > UPnP. Don't know if it is in 7.
Otherwise, it looks like you did what is supposed to be done.

On the UPnP vs port forwarding it comes down to convenience and security.
A router has essentially a hardware firewall that blocks incoming connections.
UPnP allows any program to create a port mapping through the router.
With UPnP, the port mapping can be created even without any knowledge of the administrative password to the router, and thus can be created without the knowledge or consent of the user.
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2008/01/15/home_router_insecurity/

There are clear guides on port forwarding for specific programs at PortForward.com Router Index

 

Thanks very much for your help. UPnP and port forwarding is now an awful lot clearer to me. Have been doing this computing lark for 25 years now and sometimes its just the way someone describes something that can mean all the difference in understanding it, cheers

Just as a little update on my original problem, i discovered the only way to get things to work in the end on v7 was to add the address of the router into the trusted zone. Beats me why it worked, but it did.