As a hacker, it is necessary to know the basics of port opening and forwarding. Why is that? Computer enthusiasts usually setup firewalls so that they can be online with less worries of an outside intrusion from the untamed Internet. They also usually have programs that require access to a port. Some programs include BitTorrent (Shame on you!), P2P Gnutella programs like Phex (Shame on you!), NetMeeting, some instant messaging programs, and servers (like HTTP, Remote Desktop, FTP). Since firewalls block all ports, it is necessary to manually open the ones that are needed.

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