Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) is kind of like an expanded version of the old Plug and Play hardware support. Many years ago, when you would buy a new sound card, you would have to
manually set up all of the configuration data, such as the interrupt and address that it was going to run at. Then Plug and Play technology came around and automated that whole process so that the user did not have to worry about managing interrupt and address numbers any more. Now there is Universal Plug and Play, which expands the easy install concepts of the original Plug and Play to a whole new class of devices. Universal Plug and Play can not only detect local devices such as hardware (the original version), but it can also detect external
hardware such as printers across the network or other PCs shared drives.
Universal Plug and Play, theoretically, is a great idea. It gives you the ability to easily add and control devices such as a printer across your local network, an MP3 player, a television, lighting devices, and so on. Universal Plug and Play can be thought of as a way to make all of the different electronic devices in your home, or local network, work together. However, there are very few devices, other than remote printers and file shares, that take advantage of the new protocol. Universal Plug and Play will play a big role in our computing lives in the future, but not yet.
Universal Plug and Play also presents a security risk for your computer. It continuously scans your local network, which could be a network that is open to the world, for new devices and negotiates new connections. Just as with the Messenger Service, with Universal Plug and Play the surface exposure of your computer is increased, which increases the risk that your computer could become
attacked and infected. Unlike with the Messenger Service, with Universal Plug and Play a flaw has been found in the service and has already been exploited. Microsoft was forced to release a critical security patch to fix Universal Plug and Play so that users computers would no longer be vulnerable (this patch can be found on the Windows Update Web site mentioned earlier).
Because there are almost no devices that use Universal Plug and Play currently available on the market, and it also presents a security risk, it is a good idea to just disable the new protocol for now because 99.9 percent of you have absolutely no use for it. Disabling UPnP is not a hard task. Just follow these steps to disable the service with a nifty utility, called UnPlug n Pray.
1. Visit www.grc.com/unpnp/unpnp.htm and download a copy of UnPlug n Pray.
2. Start up the utility and click Disable UPnP.
3. Click the Exit button, and you are done.
Using the utility by Gibson Research is much easier than going back to the Service Manager and disabling the service. Moreover, if you ever find that you need to use Universal Plug and Play, you can just run the utility again and click Enable UPnP and the service will be restored.
manually set up all of the configuration data, such as the interrupt and address that it was going to run at. Then Plug and Play technology came around and automated that whole process so that the user did not have to worry about managing interrupt and address numbers any more. Now there is Universal Plug and Play, which expands the easy install concepts of the original Plug and Play to a whole new class of devices. Universal Plug and Play can not only detect local devices such as hardware (the original version), but it can also detect external
hardware such as printers across the network or other PCs shared drives.
Universal Plug and Play, theoretically, is a great idea. It gives you the ability to easily add and control devices such as a printer across your local network, an MP3 player, a television, lighting devices, and so on. Universal Plug and Play can be thought of as a way to make all of the different electronic devices in your home, or local network, work together. However, there are very few devices, other than remote printers and file shares, that take advantage of the new protocol. Universal Plug and Play will play a big role in our computing lives in the future, but not yet.
Universal Plug and Play also presents a security risk for your computer. It continuously scans your local network, which could be a network that is open to the world, for new devices and negotiates new connections. Just as with the Messenger Service, with Universal Plug and Play the surface exposure of your computer is increased, which increases the risk that your computer could become
attacked and infected. Unlike with the Messenger Service, with Universal Plug and Play a flaw has been found in the service and has already been exploited. Microsoft was forced to release a critical security patch to fix Universal Plug and Play so that users computers would no longer be vulnerable (this patch can be found on the Windows Update Web site mentioned earlier).
Because there are almost no devices that use Universal Plug and Play currently available on the market, and it also presents a security risk, it is a good idea to just disable the new protocol for now because 99.9 percent of you have absolutely no use for it. Disabling UPnP is not a hard task. Just follow these steps to disable the service with a nifty utility, called UnPlug n Pray.
1. Visit www.grc.com/unpnp/unpnp.htm and download a copy of UnPlug n Pray.
2. Start up the utility and click Disable UPnP.
3. Click the Exit button, and you are done.
Using the utility by Gibson Research is much easier than going back to the Service Manager and disabling the service. Moreover, if you ever find that you need to use Universal Plug and Play, you can just run the utility again and click Enable UPnP and the service will be restored.
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