Check Open Computer Connections With My Ports – 1034th Edition
Ports are what connects your computer to the outside world. This can either be in a network or the Internet. Open ports are required for many things like connecting to websites, downloading files, chatting or uploading photos to Flickr or Facebook. Most ports are only open when they are needed by an application. Problems can arise if ports are open all the time as these can be used by malicious users and automated scripts to attack the computer system.
It is therefor recommended to regularly check the open ports for computer security reasons. We reviewed CurrPorts (see: Who is connected to your PC right now) a while ago. It is a portable Nirsoft application that will display the open ports along with information needed to conclude if the open ports are needed or not.
My Ports is another application for that purpose. There is not really a big difference between both programs we’d figure it would be nice to have an alternative at hand. My Ports displays all open ports in a list after startup. It uses a table to display various information about each open port on the computer system including the state, local and remote IP address, local and remote port, process name that is listening or using that connection and the process path to that application. It is not as sophisticated as CurrPorts but it does its job just fine.
Most of the open connections can be easily associated with one specific program like Firefox or Skye in the screenshot above. Other ports are listening due to Windows Services or other services that are running. These usually require some investigation on the user’s part to find out if they are needed to operate the computer system. A search on the Internet usually reveals websites that contain information and advice on how to deal with those connections.
My Ports is compatible with most Microsoft operating systems including Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. It can be downloaded from the developer’s website.
Tags: computer security, connections, my ports, ports, windows software
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By Martin
