Thank you for adding the IPX emulator!
I realize it has to be configured manually.
But why does it open port 3786 in addition to the one I provide it with (default - 213)?
Because the 213 port is the server listening port. 3786 is the client port that connects back to the server.
Outgoing ports usually get opened only at the time of need and not kept in the background all the time like incoming ports.
For example, when you connect to a POP server to download e-mail, only in THAT moment some outgoing ports open for you and close right after you finish the download.
The same goes for browsing sites, FTP, IRC, etc.
Why sending and receiving on different ports? My firewall will prevent any connection unless I write some more rules.
wrote:Outgoing ports usually get opened only at the time of need and not kept in the background all the time like incoming ports.
For example, when you connect to a POP server to download e-mail, only in THAT moment some outgoing ports open for you and close right after you finish the download.
The same goes for browsing sites, FTP, IRC, etc.
Yeah, but in this case the port remains open because it needs to remain connected to the IPX server. Close the port and you're disconnected from the dosbox session.
wrote:Why sending and receiving on different ports? My firewall will prevent any connection unless I write some more rules.
Because its not possible to listen on and send on the same port unless that connection is coming from the listener. In the case of the IPX server, it has to loopback.
And unless your firewall is the insanely paranoid Windows XP SP2 firewall, a firewall shouldn't even see or bother with a loopback connection.
If any of you have doubts about the security of the code, consider this:
1) This project is opensource. If your concerned about spyware in the code, go check it out for yourself.
2) DosBox is an encapsulated emulator. If by some weird chance a hacker could use an exploit in DosBox, all they'd gain control of would be your DosBox session (extremely, extremely unlikely since buffer overruns and such could only happen inside the emulated system).
3) If by some extremely slim chance your DosBox session were hijacked (which would mean that there was a hacker or virus specifically looking for DosBox sessions to hack. I'll remind you that there aren't enough DosBox users to make this a viable attack.) all you would have to do would be to close DosBox.
4) Windows SP2's firewall sucks and its paranoia setting is only a CYA for Microsoft, not for you.
