Opening ports 80 & 443

[Ravanol]

Hi all,

I have installed a piece of software which requires access to ports 80 and 443. Without this access the application does not work.

Is it safe for me to open up ports 80 and 443 on my router?

Also, how does Internet Explorer & Firefox communicate on the Internet if these ports are closed on my router? Surely browsers use these ports... so why would another application require that I open the ports?

Many thanks,

Rav.

 

[eipeks]

port 80 is http which is needed to access the internet. Port 443 accesses http using SSL. Secured internet.

If the software you are wanting to use needs to access the internet, then yes, those ports are safe. Some applications may download updates automatically, therefore would need those ports open to do so.

And if you close those ports your browsers may not work.