Be Excellent To Each Other

Please be helping me.

My Xbox keeps telling me I have a moderately strict NAT, and I should really change it to open. Being the paranoid git that I am, I don't like the sound of this 'open' NAT type. I can change it in my router settings, but before I do can anyone describe the risks of doing so, if any?

Is an open NAT less 'secure' than a moderate one? I am thinking in terms of network security (intrusions from outside my home network) or making more information about which IPs are connecting to the Internet from within the network.

Thanking you.

I keep all my computer passwords in a book next to the computer.

There's more chance of someone breaking i than bothering to randomly come sniffing around my computer to discover these things. That, and it is left turned off most of the time, along with the router.

Most people here stick their Xboxes in the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone), so I wouldn't worry about your NAT being open. It just means you can join more games (and all your mates, hopefully). I wouldn't recommend sticking a Windows PC out there, though, for obvious reasons.

There's only a few ports you need to forward to avoid the need to stick it in the DMZ. These are they:

TCP 80
UDP 88
UDP 3074
TCP 3074
UDP 53
TCP 53

For some reason, putting the ip for my 360 in the DMZ box of the router settings didn't change how MW2 read my NAT type, but setting up port forwarding using the info craster posted (cheers BTW) now makes it show an open NAT.

Stangely, the port forward i'd set up for utorrent seems to have disappeared. This seems to happen every few months. It's no big deal I suppose.

Also! If you're using port forwarding, don't forget to give your xbox a static ip, and tell your router not to hand out that address from DHCP.