Will port forwarding on a guest network make it safer?

[Droid_22]

This is my first time port forwarding. I've looked up quite a bit about it and I know how to do it. However, the device I'm port forwarding is a old vista machine that's going to be hosting a game sever. I know that vista isn't probably the best thing to be port forwarding so i'm kind of worried about security. My question is would I be able to protect the rest of my network by creating a guest network separate from the network I use for everything else or would it just be pointless.

Any help or information is greatly appreciated!

[Gen X]

What kind of router?

[Omega]

Upgrade the machine to Windows 10 unactivated.

No, port forwarding will not improve security.

[Droid_22]

Originally posted by Omega:

Upgrade the machine to Windows 10 unactivated.

No, port forwarding will not improve security.

i'm not sure the system is quite up to windows 10. Also My question isn't whether port forwarding on it's own compromises security my question is does port forwarding on a guest network keep the devices on the main network safe.

Originally posted by Generation X:

What kind of router?

The router is a motorola MG7550

[x_wing]

Originally posted by Droid_22:

Originally posted by Omega:

Upgrade the machine to Windows 10 unactivated.

No, port forwarding will not improve security.

i'm not sure the system is quite up to windows 10. Also My question isn't whether port forwarding on it's own compromises security my question is does port forwarding on a guest network keep the devices on the main network safe.

Well, it depends if your guest network is isolated from the other network and if it doesn't have access to the router configuration. Having this two points covered, it may keep your private network safe even if your server gets compromised.

Remember that you should guarantee that your router is safe, it would be wise to keep no service port open to this network (in fact, it would be recommended to only allow traffic in the ports that will be forwarded)

Also, check if you can run in a Linux distro your game server, that would be far more secure if you know how to setup the system.