Hosting a Proxy, VPN, and Firewall then connecting to it on the same network

DanielC23

Honorable
Nov 5, 2013
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Hi guys,

I'm new to networking, and lately I've been trying to set up a game server with my own IP address. My problem is that I don't want to expose my network to hackers, etc. I currently have a proxy set up on one of my servers to protect myself while browsing on the internet, but I do realize that it doesn't protect anything that enters or exits through Java, etc. from what I've read. So that's where the VPN, and Firewall come in. My true question is, if I'm hosting these services on my own computers, and network, do I recieve the security benefits at all? (I know I won't recieve any anonimity benefits because this is hosted from my own IP)
 
Solution
The proxy server will add some level of protection as any intrusions or automatically running code will run on the proxy server and not infect your PC (although if you have to resetup your proxy server all the time due to infections then it is not really saving you any work.

A VPN tunnel locally does you absolutely nothing. All you are doing is creating another way to get from point A to point B with more overhead.

Even then Proxy is overkill for your situation.
If you want to feel secure then just have a PC specifically for the gaming server, put it on a separate VLAN and forward the port to that PC.
Have a disc image saved of that PC and just revert to old image when needed.
Pretty much as soon as you do stuff like port mapping to allow external access into your machine you are exposing it to the internet. Unless this is a dedicated machine that is isolated from your network and only provides that service you are at risk. How much risk is mostly one of those discussions that have no clear answer. Most hacking is done for money and since you are not a bank with money to steal you are much less a target.

Really there is no way to protect your machine 100% except to not ever use the internet. When you consider there are vpn clinet that require nothing more than activex to create a vpn tunnel what can you do. Its not like you can disable activex like you can java.
 

gbb0330

Reputable
Apr 28, 2015
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5,960


if you surf the web and download questionable software and visit questionable sites, no firewall, VPN or proxy in the world will protect you from yourself.



 
The proxy server will add some level of protection as any intrusions or automatically running code will run on the proxy server and not infect your PC (although if you have to resetup your proxy server all the time due to infections then it is not really saving you any work.

A VPN tunnel locally does you absolutely nothing. All you are doing is creating another way to get from point A to point B with more overhead.

Even then Proxy is overkill for your situation.
If you want to feel secure then just have a PC specifically for the gaming server, put it on a separate VLAN and forward the port to that PC.
Have a disc image saved of that PC and just revert to old image when needed.
 
Solution