On Monday 05 July 2004 08:29, Antony Stone wrote: > I know this is by no means a detailed reply, but I would say it comes down > to one word - "security". I'll second that. Microsoft released a long article extolling the virtues of UPnP where it pitches the system as a replacement for X.10 home automation, (e.g. everything including your alarm clock is UPnP enabled, and gets synchronised / alarms set by a central server), with only a small mention of the hideous firewall 'features' UPnP moves policy and security decisions from the firewall ruleset where they properly belong to a userspace app running on Windows - forgive me, but the designer of this system seems like a candidate for the Darwin Awards of the most dangerous and stupid network idea ever - just think the next version of Sasser / Fizzer would open ports on your $50 UPnP-enabled firewall and make you be an even bigger zombie host. And all in the name of 'ease of use' - bah. Let's hope a huge lawsuit against Netgear / Belkin / other low-end router manufr. puts an end to this disease. gdh
