Port forwarding on fritzbox

[ErickL]

Roon Core Machine

Networking Gear & Setup Details

Fritzbox 5490, gigabit glass fiber. Isp :Tweak, the Netherlands

Connected Audio Devices

Number of Tracks in Library

Description of Issue

Hello, like many I’m struggling to get the port forwarding thing work for me. I’ve read the instructions and the topics on fritzbox. This post https://community.roonlabs.com/t/port-forwarding-instructions-for-most-fritz-box-users/212491 seemed the ultimate and super simple solution. Unfortunately the topic is already closed, so I cannot reply to it directly.
I tried it and it worked. But something is not clear and makes me nervous.
I thought that the idea behind port forwarding was to open a specific item on your home network to a very specific machine or service on the internet. That way it’s reasonably safe. If the service is not recognized the port will not be opened. At least that’s how I assume it should be working.
Following the instructions I open my roon core to the internet. But I can’t see any limitation to who can connect to my network. In other words, it’s wide open.
Or am I missing something?
The problem is that I haven’t got a clue what I am doing. I just click where I am pointed. That’s a potential highway to disaster. For the time being I’ll stick to apple music or qobuz when out.
I hope someone can shed some light

[Geoff_Coupe]

Perhaps these messages from Danny will shed some light on what is happening. Bottom line: unless you’re paranoid, you can relax.

Security with Roon ARC / Roon 2.0

Roon authenticates your user credentials and uses an encrypted transport. No unintended users can access your Roon. If Roon is not running, then no one listens on the port that is forwarded, so nothing external can access anything inside your network. It’s like a phone number that never answers. If somehow you already had rogue/malicious software on your network, it could access your network freely and it doesn’t need to open ports at all. It can tunnel traffic from the outside to the inside …

Security with Roon ARC / Roon 2.0

They suggest this because they don’t want a corporate employee to open ports into the corporate network. Not because of malicious software. Malicious software that relies on port forwarding wouldn’t be very effective. Many of these vendors don’t even support automatic port forwarding configuration. Example in the SOHO space: UniFi EdgeRouters need extra addon software to do it. Again, because of the exploitable nature of poor implementations, not because they will open random ports inbound. I…

[ErickL]

Thanks Geoff,

Yes. My paranoia is caused by a lack of knowledge combined with an overflow of information.
I’ve read the posts you referred to before. I read it again, now understand them better.
I’ll give it a try.

Thanks again