What is uPNP? Do I need it?

[BrainY]

Dear geeks,

What does uPNP exactly do? Do I really need it? Or what do you normally use it for?

 

[P1nnacle]

universal Plug and Play, it's not something you usually notice, it just allows you to plug in things without having to turn off your computer.

 

[BrainY]

Sorry uPNP on a router

 

[P1nnacle]

Sorry uPNP on a router

It allows other plug and play devices to connect to the router easier. Not super important.

 

[k1114]

Not having to turn off the pc is hot swapping, that is not the same as pnp nor upnp. PNP is for devices and let's you plug in a device without having to configure anything. UPNP is for devices automatically being detected on a network without having to configure anything.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Plug_and_Play

 

[BrainY]

But do I really need upnp then? I heard it's mainly for torrents. Wb gaming?

 

[P1nnacle]

Not having to turn off the pc is hot swapping, that is not the same as pnp nor upnp. PNP is for devices and let's you plug in a device without having to configure anything. UPNP is for devices automatically being detected on a network without having to configure anything.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Plug_and_Play

Yeah you're right, but there is PNP for computers as well.

 

[BrainY]

But do I really need upnp then? I heard it's mainly for torrents. Wb gaming?

So is this for torrents? Will it block gaming as well then?
I'm using a PC, Xbox360, and PS3 for gaming.

 

[k1114]

Yeah you're right, but there is PNP for computers as well.

I never said it wasn't for computers.

So is this for torrents? Will it block gaming as well then?
I'm using a PC, Xbox360, and PS3 for gaming.

It will automatically open ports that the devices use. But you can do it manually so you don't necessarily need it.

 

[BrainY]

But if I don't do it manual.. I won't be able to play the games? 😛

 

[Kewlx25]

uPNP is required if you want your devices to be able to open ports on your router, otherwise you will need to manually do port forwarding. Manual port fowarding gets annoying if you have more than one machine that need that same port at different times, like when my wife wants to patch World of Wacraft or I want to patch it. It uses BitTorrent and requires forwarded ports.

Without uPNP, I would have to sit through slow patch downloads or manually change which computer has that port forwarded.

In the grand scheme of things, it's a security hole and public IP addresses with a proper firewall settings is best.