When buying and installing a new router, we often only care about adjusting the basic connection settings so that we can connect to the Internet without worrying about adjusting the other settings of the router in order to protect the network in general and secure it against the risks of penetration and misuse, and when thinking logically we will find that these settings definitely mean something Therefore, the possibility of controlling and changing them with the router has been added.
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| What is the UPnP protocol and how does it work as a threat to the router and the network? |
One of those settings is the so-called UPnP protocol, which like most network communication protocols provides some advantages in addition to some disadvantages, and through today's article we will learn together in a simple way about the benefit of the UPnP protocol with the answer to the question that always haunts this protocol about its severity and whether it should be disabled or No.
What is UPnP?
Whatever your level of experience in the field of technology, of course you used a portable storage device one day, and the most prominent example of it is the flash, which is gaining its popularity through the ease of installing and operating it on computers directly without any settings, using a technology called "Plug and Play". But imagine with me if every time you want to connect a flash drive to a computer, you will need to adjust some settings in order to run it on the computer and transfer files to and from it, surely in this case the flashes will not be that popular.
Returning to the topic of the article, we all know that the role of the router is to connect the elements of the internal network with each other as well as coordination between them so that each of them can communicate with the other without any problems with the network by specifying a different internal network address or "IP" for each device connected to the network to be The task of communicating devices with each other is much easier. When any device on the network wants to communicate with another device on the same network, this will be possible by specifying the address of the sender and the addressee in the form of "IP" for each of them, but in addition to that it may require something else, which is the port number through which the communication will be sent and received or "Port ".
You will not feel this problem, for example, when communicating between computers on the same network, as the operating system and software on each of them may play this role by identifying and controlling the ports, but some other devices such as storage devices and network printers cannot determine this on their own. Because it does not have its own operating system. And because the router needs this information to direct the connection, the task of connecting these devices and controlling them on the network with other devices is impossible and needs to be set manually, and here comes the role of the UPnP protocol.
The UPnP protocol is an acronym for "Universal Plug and Play". It is a protocol developed by Microsoft. It is a set of procedures that regulate the process of connecting devices on the network and make the task of discovering these devices to each other much easier and thus you will not need the ability to communicate and share information between them to control Any settings, which means that, for example, when you install a hard disk and connect it to the network, you will be able to see its contents and run them from other devices on the network without any need to adjust any settings as long as the UPnP protocol is activated through the router.
But could UPnP pose a network risk that leads you to disable it?
Despite the good purpose of using the UPnP protocol, the ease of adjusting the settings between devices, if activated, will mean that each device will be able to open a connection through a specific port without the need for settings or permissions from the user and thus if the network is infected with a virus or malware that hackers use to hunt Users, so during the activation of the UPnP protocol, this software can open certain communication ports or "ports" by itself on the router, through which it will be possible to establish a connection with external parties such as servers for hackers, through which data are leaked, for example, or allow the download of other programs that are more harmful without being able to " Firewall "from discovering these connections and blocking them, as they will be dealt with with complete confidence as if the user is browsing the Internet normally, and for this reason it is always preferable to disable the use of the UPnP protocol on the internal network as long as you do not need it or do not have sufficient experience in the field of networks.
How to disable UPnP connection from router settings?
UPnP is enabled by default on most routers, so it should be disabled if you don't need it. Of course, not all routers have the same interface, and this article will not be able to mention the method for each router, but often you will find the UPnP protocol connection settings in the applications list or "applications" in the router settings. Once you reach them, you will find a list with the name of the UPnP protocol, and you can disable it easily. By removing the selection in front of the "Enable" option.
If this method does not work in the case of some different routers, you can easily search through the Internet for how to disable UPnP using your router model number, which you will find on a sticker on the back of the router so that you can get the appropriate and correct steps for your device.
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