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Opening port 80 on RTAC-86U is a security risk?

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Old-Timer1

Occasional Visitor
Hey Guys,

I have a raspberry pi running pihole, unbound and Pivpn connected to my RTAC-86U.

I have a random port on the router opened for PiVPN to work and this works great.

I just signed up for an account on uptime robot and am trying to set it up so that when my raspberry pi and pihole go down, I get an alert.

So uptime robot allows you to monitor ports.

I tried opening several different ports on the router to allow uptime robot to monitor them, but the ony one that works is port 80 so far.

So I have opened port 80 in the router admin panel.

My question is:

Is this a bad idea or a security risk?

Hope someone can shed some light

Thanks Guys
 
When you say admin panel what do you mean?

Have you enabled remote admin access to your router on http (port 80)? Yes, that is a security risk.

If 80 really is the only option, I'd either setup a static Web page via nginx or (more likely) abandon the monitor you're using.
 
I tried opening several different ports on the router to allow uptime robot to monitor them, but the ony one that works is port 80 so far.
What do you mean by "opening ports on the router"? Do you mean forwarding ports to some device on your LAN? If so, that device must be running a service on that port and responding to external requests (i.e. check the device's firewall).
 
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This all seems like overkill to me! I love my Raspberry Pi, but if I wanted a simple phone home VPN then why not setup Instant Guard on the router. Regards "Uptime Robot", if you are simply using it to check that your router is on the web then you can do that by enabling ICMP echo.

One of those questions where we've been told "what", but I think "why" would be more enlightening.
 
When you say admin panel what do you mean?

Have you enabled remote admin access to your router on http (port 80)? Yes, that is a security risk.

If 80 really is the only option, I'd either setup a static Web page via nginx or (more likely) abandon the monitor you're using

Great idea about Nginx, I have since closed port 80 on the router
 
What do you mean by "opening ports on the router"? Do you mean forwarding ports to some device on your LAN? If so, that device must be running a service on that port and responding to external requests (i.e. check the device's firewall).

Yes I meant port forwarding, I done some reading last night and have closed port 80, will have a lok at nginx
 
This all seems like overkill to me! I love my Raspberry Pi, but if I wanted a simple phone home VPN then why not setup Instant Guard on the router. Regards "Uptime Robot", if you are simply using it to check that your router is on the web then you can do that by enabling ICMP echo.

One of those questions where we've been told "what", but I think "why" would be more enlightening.

I already have phone home enabled via PiVPN. I just wanted to monitor if my pi went down
 
@Old-Timer1
I recently moved from PiVPN to OVPN on the router, and I couldn't be more pleased.
 

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