Just disable upnp and/or stop forwarding the bitcoin port from your router, this limits you just listening to 8 connections.
Currently I leave the client closed and when I want to make a transaction it take as little as 2 min to catch up. I prefer to broadcast my transaction to 60+ connection than 8.
Given how trivial to implement is what I ask please stop the OS / router patches recommendation . Thank you.
I leave my client closed and it doesn't have to catch up if I'm sending funds. Otherwise I start it and leave it overnight about once every couple weeks.