How many connections and how many ports are opened?

[roliaz]

I'm running PF Pro 3.0 and testing it on a two W/S connection. One computer is full time on the LAN and a laptop that is both on and off the LAN.

The traffic on my network was increased so dramatically after the PF installation that I had to uninstall and reinstall it to see what it was doing to the system.

After re-installation I would put my Firewall in the training mode to monitor which connections it was attempting to establish. It just doesn't stop.

If I look at the firewall connection monitor, Powerfolder will have at any given time 7 or more established connections with for example to

IP 84.176.150.187
on remote port 1337
and local port 4333

Further I will see about a dozen open ports by Powerfolder with the following line below in quotes ...the first entry is the port and the second from last entry is the local ip address

"4375 TCP POWERFOLDER.EXE -XMS16M -XMX128M -XX:MINHEAPFREERATIO=10 -XX:MAXHEAPFREERATIO=20 -JAR "C:\PROGRAM FILES\POWERFOLDER.COM\POWERFOLDER\POWERFOLDER.JAR" 127.0.0.1 01:04:16"

At present I'm uninstalling PF as it poses a security risk.

I was under the impression that PF required local ports 1337 and 80 for http.

My question is, what are all the other ip connections about? In this case the IP starting with 84 is regionally assigned to Germany. I also have IP's connected to powerfolder starting with 88, 78 and 70 and there would be more if I let it go on.

On one of these addresses before uninstallation it monitored over a 120MB of data transferred(sent).

After a 20 minute connection these lines showed up in the network activity log...

Name....................................IP........ ...............Rec'd......Sent
access.powerfolder.com...........78.47.186.75..... ...9.1 MB.....1.3 MB
p54B096BB.dip0.t-ipconnect.de.84.176.150.187.....2 MB........115.2 KB
server.powerfolder.com...........88.198.134.180... ...1.3 MB.....476 KB
web.powerfolder.com..............88.198.134.178... ...1.3 MB.....312.6 KB

So back to the original question. How many Ports and how many connections are required to use a two workstation PF setup?

Thank you for reading.

[B.A.]

hello roliaz
At first Powerfolder is not sending any of YOUR data it is
only sending network information which are necessary to
find other nodes. As soon as the the nodes are found
PowerFolder is opening another connection which is
encrypted with PowerFolder pro.
This connection is only accessible with the folder invitation.

Also we added some features to make powerfolder easier
to use(but need some more connections )this features are
relayed connections and UDT connections. If you have a
correctly setup router and firewall on all sides this feature
is not necessary. both features establish connections with
routers and firewalls for powerfolder but are save.
All connections opend by PowerFolder are only existing as
long as powerfolder is running and as long PowerFolder is
running the port is blocked by PowerFolder so if you let
PowerFolder open the ports and not open a port manually
and permanent its even more save.

Ok now to the POINT what you can do to reduce connections?
1.
The strongest way todo reduce connections is only possible
with fixed IPS.(perhaps also dyndns but i have to ask about that).

Switch to Lan only mode.
And add the fixed ips to the ip list under advanced settings.
Powerfolder will not search for nodes via the network.

2.another way to reduce the connections is to:
-leave powerfolder without dyndns address
-switch off Nat and Relayed
-set the connection (under network) to correct speed
(unlimited is only for networks faster than T3)


About PowerFolder security:

-We separate the nodes finding process from the data transfer process
-Every folder needs an invitation to access the data
-Every Node as an unique identification if somebody
else is joining the folder you get warned even if he has same name
-All Data transfers are encrypted with PowerFolder Pro


Finally you need one port

best regards

Bernhard Rutkowsky

[roliaz]

Your prompt reply is welll appreciated but you also aren't able to fully provide information to what is required to optimize the installation.

My concern at present is the seemingly complex set of connections and port openings that are administered behind the scenes and the lack of documentation to be able to optimize the configuration.

In my test installation I'm running a five node network on Windows Server 2003. With the upgrade to Powerfolder 3.0 an increase of over 1000% in network traffic was noticed immediately.

The effect of Powerfolder is felt by every workstation on the network not only the two units running powerfolder. In my test installation one of the units not using Powerfolder is a gaming machine running "World of Warcraft" the player's response time is typically a latentcy of 100 - 300ms. The minute Powerfolder is running the latentcy shoots up to 3000ms(making the game unplayable) that's a 1000% increase.

The effect is felt on all the other systems too, the most noticable is the sluggishness when browsing and accessing websites.

When you turn off Powerfolder the whole network is back to the perfromance that is expected.

Can you provide another level of documentation beyond what is available from the website?

Thank you for your cooperation.

[B.A.]

We are writing a new documentation at the moment.
But did you tried the reductions of my previous post?
They really reduce the transferred data.

-Set the bandwidth to true level or below (settings/network)
-Switch off nat (settings/network)
-Switch off relayed connection (settings/network)
-Try to change to lan only mode and add the ips to the iplist (settings/advanced)
-Check out the idle mode if you play (third button from the right side on top)

ALso on connect(startup) powerfolder needs to check all folders
for new Data this means that all file list need to be compared and new
files get exchanged. When this is done powerfolder reduces the data exchange.

But perhaps you could send us your log files so we can analyze them and see if there is some major problem (with powerfolder)
To enable the logging go to settings/advanced
restart Powerfolder
let it run some time
close it and send us the log files (especially powerfolder.log)to support(at)powerfolder.com

best regards
Bernhard Rutkowsky

[roliaz]

I've looked to Powerfolder as a possible answer to some of my clients that have a genuine need for remote access to their files but do not have the budget to setup a VPN or some other way to share their files.

At this point in time Powerfolderis not able to fill that bill. As i've been working with Powerfolder it seems to create more questions and problems than answers and solutions, this is further compounded with the lack of comprehensive documentation.

I have neither the time nor the willingness to pursue the course you prescribe of gathering and submitting logs. My job it to bring strong and viable solutions to my clients and I will have to pass on your offering in its present state as it is not yet ready for prime time.

I wish you all the best.

[B.A.]

Did you tried any of the settings i recommend to you?
What have been the results?


Its like this:
Today i was playing Teamfortress 2 while PowerFolder
running in the background. I had a ping smaller than 60.
The initial scan takes some resources and transferring big
amounts of data does also.That is normal and based on the
laws of physic. The documentation is under construction right
now and we are aware that this is not a good situation but on
the other hand we offer a FREE support here and by email.




So what are the questions which have been created by PowerFolder?
Write a list of them an you will have them answered in the shortest time possible.

But of course its your good right to make your decisions and we force nobody to use
our product. Have fun with World of Warcraft and all the best to you too.

Best Regards
Bernhard Rutkowsky

[roliaz]

As I've stated earlier, comprehensive documentation is a must. I'm unwilling at this point, after seeing what Powerfolder may do, to work any further if I don't have a reference in hand, as I'm constantly forced to be on a forum asking for advice on the simplest settings.

Bring these things together, good documentation or at least a locally based help system plus a better overview of what Powerfolder will be doing on your computer or network then I may again look at it.

I really do appreciate your prompt responses.

Thank you.

[B.A.]

ok we will hurry to do so: in future you will find our documentation here:
http://wiki.powerfolder.com/wiki/Main_Page

Thank you very much for your open statements and the information
you gave to us what you see as a problem.

Good success with your business