Network Gaming

Hi all,
I've been playing a game called Wordox, which uses a program called WONPlay (from World Opponent Network). I'd like to bring my real-life friends online to this game, but im concerned about security: it looks like this program keeps a door open both ways between the player and the network.
I've looked on Astalavista, searched on Google, on Microsoft, on won.net, and in the forums here, and couldnt find any info, either positive or negative, about this software and possible security issues. It looks like it's used for a wide variety of games.
Has anyone heard or read anything, can i recommend the program or should i avoid it? I havent had any problems with it yet, and have been using it on Windows NT4, 2K Pro, 98SE, and ME. But you never know...
Thanks in advance for this one, and belated thanks for all the info i've gathered on these here forums

 

AFAIK all the internet interactive gaming programs require bi-directional communication between player & game or player(s) and game. Otherwise I don't see how it could work.

If you are (rightly) concerned about security, you need to be running a firewall that will allow you to specify which locations and what sorts of traffic you will allow. I know Black Ice will do an excellent job of this. Not sure about Zone Alarm but others on here have experience with it so can probably help out.

What you have done with checking for references to problems with a site is an excellent additional precaution. Chances are excellent that if an established site were causing problems, someone would have posted about it. I'd just avoid any sites that spring up brand-new until they have been tested for a few months.

 

Thanks for the info, Newt. Black Ice Defender looks like it could give me what i need... although im still a bit unclear on the subject of "what i need" For example, my ISP told me they rout all traffic through a firewall (i have ADSL, but i dont know if it works exactly the same in Switzerland as in the US), but... obviously, if i can access the game, then the door is open both ways as long as the game is running, right? Or is it not that obvious? Could the ISP block incoming traffic without blocking game access? Maybe I should ask them...

Ah well. It's not such a big issue for me, i dont even have any problems with the software, havent noticed anything weird in my computer (other than the usual Windows behaviour, DUH )... But maybe i've been lucky so far? It just suddenly occurred to me that network gaming might not be as safe as i thought, and that maybe i should look into it before i recommend a game...

 

Alex - for you to play interactive stuff, the door has to be open both ways. Problem is, with no protection on your PC, all doors are open to ANY TRAFFIC that wants to use the port. So you can game but I could easily sneak some bad stuff in thru the same open door. And there are something like 10K ports available to any IP address.

Any firewall will allow you to open or shut a particular port (gate/door). And many will tell you what sort of thing is flowing thru specific ports both inbound and outbound.

There may be others that do as Black Ice can but it will allow you to specify the sort of traffic you will allow so you have basically a gate /w guard who checks ID cards.

As to the US vs. Switzerland thing, the net & IP comms in general are universal. One ISP can certainly configure differently than another (within limits) but most will be pretty similar.

 

Well, many thanx for clarifying this! I'll get information on these ports right away, they look kinda important, heh...
Question is closed for me, i hope yall who've read this and not posted found the info interesting
L8er...

Alex