Hi, I was wondering if anyone could tell me what UDP means. I am running Sygate firewall and in the traffic list sometimes a UDP Protocol is allowed through my firewall. Is this any reason for concern as most of the Protocolcs in the list are ICMP. Thank you for taking the time to read this... if you can help I would really appreciate it, Kind Regards, Stu.

UDP stands for User Datagram Protocol. The User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is a connectionless transport-layer protocol that belongs to the Internet protocol family. UDP is basically an interface between IP and upper-layer processes. This is a simplified data transport protocol that doesn't do error checking like TCP does. Both are associated with moving informaton around on the internet. Requests and responses can be in either protocol but i seem to recall the UDP are for small packets of data such as the hand shaking between 2 computers. When a lot of data is sent typically that is done with TCP. ICMP, Internet Control Message Protocol ICMPs generate several kinds of useful messages, including Ping, Destination Unreachable, Echo Request and Reply, Redirect, Time Exceeded, and Router Advertisement and Router Solicitation I assume you're getting messages from the firewall about unauthorized traffic. Normal operation uses these and firewalls can be made to tolerate these requests. It's safe to say that if you didn't do something that results in a message from your firewall, then suspect it. Keep in mind a firewall is only as good as the rules set up for it.