[Lloyd227]

"In other words we need to make sure port 4444 is blocked inbound AND outbound."

I'm just sitting here trying to figure out how to do this. Have 5 pcs behind a LInkSys router and figured there must be a simple way to do this at the rounter to block port 4444 there.

If so, it's not obvious. I can forward ports and trigger ports, but how in the heck does one block a port at the router?

All help appreciated as I'm (obviously) not sharp enough at this to be running a home network.

[Ramius]

Your Linksys router (depending on the model) may or may not have any hardware firewall capability.

As a general rule, I would recommend hiding ANY computer, regardless of OS, behind a decent firewall box of some kind. One good example might be the Netgear ProSafe series. They're not expensive, they are configurable and they'll do a pretty good job of hiding your home LAN from the Internet. Just remember to configure it away from the defaults, change the default passwords, and lock the outside world down, and you'll be in pretty good shape.

[FairOpinion]

I don't have a clue on how to do it on a router -- I should get one, but I don't have one yet. I am using software firewalls: Symantec's and Webroot.com's. there you just create and advanced rule and hopefully that takes care of it.

Hopefully someone knowledgeable will tell you how to do that on a router.