Hi Boris,
I reached out to our WebServices team and asked them about the secure connection for the download pages. Unofrtunately, this will not change the fact that these are still EXE files.
I looked deeper into your port question and it seems that it simply the port 80 that has to be configured to allow incoming conenctions. This is btw also a secure conenction:
How Do I Resolve NI Update Service Secure Connection Errors? - National Instruments
http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/80DEAC90907C5B0F862578DF0074FAA0?OpenDocument
Otherwise, there is this document, where all necessary ports are listed:
Configuring Software and Hardware Firewalls to Support National Instruments Products - National Instruments
http://www.ni.com/white-paper/12402/en/
Have you seen this thread?
What ports do the NI Update Service use - Discussion Forums - National Instruments
http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/What-ports-do-the-NI-Update-Service-use/m-p/2518256#M765657
In the last post there is the reference to the netstat command. Does this give you any other inputs about the ports?
Cheers,
Niko
Niko NR
Systems Engineer, National Instruments