We all make mistakes and one I made reminded me of how dangerous a service called UPnP can be and why you should make sure your router is not using it.

I purchased a new Wi-Fi IP telephone so I can use a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service around the home as well as anywhere with a wireless (Wi-Fi) service. My business number is a VoIP service and at the moment it works with a desk based IP telephone. It would be great not to have to keep running to the phone when I’m not sitting next to it. Hence the purchase of the wireless device.

I ran into a few problems trying to get the new phone to work with my telephone service and one of the suggestions was to make sure that the Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) service was turned on at my router. I don’t have this service turned on as it is a security risk but to see if it helped I turned it on and it made no difference. Then I made my mistake. I was so focussed on getting the new phone to work that I forgot to turn the UPnP service off. Oops… Read More…