Folding Forum

When I began folding, I noticed in the settings that you can change the port and that the default was 36330. I then opened 36330 on my router and began. A while later, I am not wondering what Folding@HOme uses the port for. So, what does Folding@Home use port 36330 for?

The data, if local, only goes through the switch portion of the router and that is not subject to any of the security measures that your router has. The router's ports would only have to be opened if you are remote monitoring a machine that is not local (i.e. somewhere on the internet). Even then there are very significant issues with NAT changing the IP address. I would not even try to remote monitor a machine over the internet without a whole bunch of free fiddle-time hours to make it work.

36330 is used for communication to FAHClient. The reason that it uses a port is because FAHClient offers an API, which several other pieces of software hook into. For example, Advanced Control uses that port to facilitate more technical adjustments to FAHClient. FAHClient is also capable of remote connections. For example, I run F@h on several machines, and I enjoy being able to control all of them. Since I can just connect to all the different FAHClient instances through 36330, it really makes administration easier.

Web Control uses a different port, 7396, for communication with FAHClient. When you visit folding.stanford.edu/client, you're actually just loading the interface from your own machine, not from Stanford. Since Web Control only talks to the local machine, you don't have to mess with its port in your router.

Thus, you don't usually need to open a hole in your router unless you are connecting to the F@h software from outside your router.