Does it use UPNP, or is it actually creating a permanent mapping?
I honestly don’t know. The software is user-friendly, but the website is not. 
I use this: http://sourceforge.net/projects/upnp-portmapper/
It’s written in java so it’s cross platform, and both the sourceforge page and the UI are quite strate forward, I like it, but all the mappings will reset after a certain amount of time (but you can set this quite high, like 32 months I think is the max).
One concern I’d have about this:
All the 10 year old kiddies who don’t know anything about running a server or computers or networks or anything like that port forwarding their computer and opening themselves up to DDoS attacks and the like.
Sponge would start getting all kinds of complaints from parents, probably.
It’d definitely be cool though. But I feel like there would need to be some warning on the downloads page to not host a server from home unless you really know what you’re doing and have adequate hardware to actually host a server… That way you can at least say, “don’t say we didn’t warn you” when suddenly verizon etc. cuts their service for too much bandwidth use : P
lmao, I’d say that most private servers won’t have that issues, and generally people don’t host public servers from home. The bandwidth thing probably wouldn’t even be much of in issue unless it was DDoS’d, although I’m not sure how companies handle that for in-bound traffic, especially DDoS attacks.
I would say that we need to give them enough leash to hang them selves with. So warn them, warn them again, let them mess them selves up, warn them again, then laugh; laugh hysterically, laugh at them, and laugh at the Darwin effect as it happens. But that’s just me, and I may be just a little bit of an anarchist. 
3 Likes
Haha yeah, I agree.
The thing is that on bukkit they pretty much told you how to port forward the server on their wiki without saying much about possible security issues. So I just think it’d be nice if, with sponge, we warn people that you need to at least kind of know what you’re doing before actually going and doing it based on some 5-minute youtube video.
Also, I guess you’re right that it’s mostly private servers that are hosted from home, @OffLuffy, I didn’t really think about that. Still, some people might try to host a public server from home, which… may end badly for them. So I think that there should be some warning against that 
It is hardware specific. It depends on what device you want to configure to port-forward.
Also, not everybody has a machine to dedicate just to firewall and network routing.
It is not hardware specific. A standard has been created for this purpose, and has been mentioned countless times in this thread: uPnP.
They aren’t permanent, but they don’t need to be. Ask the router to forward port 25565, and release it or let it time out when the server stops.
This kind of thing really shouldn’t be built-in to Sponge though, it probably belongs in a GUI or simplification project.
Well, I’m talking about manual port-forwarding. As a plus, wether you can even use uPnP is hardware specific 
Is uPnP supported by everything?
Virtually, yes. Almost all modern routers support uPnP to an extent. Most routers won’t support the newer versions of uPnP, but those are drafts anyway and don’t need to be worried about.
I know that current Comcast, TWC, and Verizon FiOS routers support uPnP, and almost all modern third-party routers also support it. If someone doesn’t have uPnP support, they should just learn to port forward on their ancient router or install DD-WRT.
The point here is to attempt to simplify the set up of a private home-hosted server. If the user’s router is ancient or misconfigured, then they have to go in and do it manually.
Offering QoS support as well with simple language like “Optimize my connection for server speed” or “Optimize my connection for general traffic” could also be good, but is a side thing.
2 Likes
It has to be enabled on your router but in most cases it is enabled by default.
- Morph
1 Like
It is also typically enabled on corporate or school networks to allow video conferencing thru Skype, or direct PtP conferencing like team speak and mumble.
Hahaha, but not in german schools 
- Morph
Really, I’ve been hosting my server on my schools network this way for most of 4 years now, I guess Canadian schools just don’t care. I even leave it here over the summer, admining using SSH, and just leaving the bios on auto reboot when the power goes out or there is a crash.
1 Like
I would say that this is the target market for Realms.
3 Likes
Although not everyone is going to want to put forward money for a simple and easy setup they’d probably rather do at home, I’d agree.
You wont want to forget that most enterprise grade routers used in data centers, support uPnP, allowing for faster roll out of hosted servers (A possible bonus), also there are various libraries already available for java developers to use to integrate into there applications. Most webcams that allow access via your external IP address use it the most, but many other services use it too. Now what it comes down too, is whether you want to allow plugins access to is, for remote control apps, or not to allow plugins access to it to prevent a compromised machine.
If I was running a datacenter I’d disable uPnP anyway for security resons so I’m not that sure wether it’d be that helpful xD