Firewall, Proxy, and Port Planning

Plan least-privilege access for cloud HTTPS/WSS and local desktop protocols.

Written By 4ALL.LIVE

Last updated 12 days ago

Give IT a protocol-level network design that allows required traffic without unnecessarily exposing workstations.

Best for: Security/network administrators and broadcast engineers.

Before you start

Enterprise endpoints and providers vary by organization configuration.

  • Use a non-production reproduction when possible.
  • Record current configuration before changes.
  • Keep an independent confidence monitor and fallback.
  • List chosen STT/translation/TTS provider, ASL, displays/viewers, remote control, XPression, Encoder, and updater.
  • Identify client/server ownership for every local protocol.
  • Separate production, management, and public viewer networks where required.

Step by step

  1. Allow outbound DNS and TLS/HTTPS on TCP 443 to the approved 4All deployment and provider endpoints.
  2. Allow secure WebSocket upgrades and long-lived connections on approved wss:// endpoints; do not apply an idle timeout shorter than event duration.
  3. For the Desktop Operator App, allow localhost authorization/deep-link flow and the local forallcli sidecar on loopback 127.0.0.1/localhost port 8787 when Offline STT is used.
  4. For XPression Bridge, allow only the configured WebSocket DataLinq, TCP server/client, RSS HTTP, or UDP port between named hosts.
  5. For Encoder, allow RTMP/RTMPS egress and the agreed SRT/RIST UDP direction/mode/port.
  6. Restrict listener services to the intended interface, source IPs, and production VLAN.
  7. Test through the real proxy/TLS inspection path and record exceptions.
  8. Review and remove temporary rehearsal rules after validation.

What success looks like: Required flows work and every exception has an owner, scope, purpose, test, and review date.

Check your setup

  • Cloud and local paths are tested separately.
  • No listener binds more broadly than needed.
  • Secrets are not encoded in firewall tickets.
  • Rules match the current runbook.

Troubleshooting

  • Port direction wrong: map caller/listener/server/client explicitly.
  • TLS inspection breaks provider: use approved bypass for exact host.
  • Loopback blocked: repair host endpoint policy, not perimeter firewall.
  • Intermittent WSS: inspect proxy idle/reconnect behavior.

Security and operational notes

Important: Open only exact required hosts, protocols, ports, and directions. Never expose a local caption or encoder service directly to the public internet.