Updated August 10, 2023
Introduction to Networking Ports
The physical ports on a computer provide communication with peripheral devices like a mouse, keyboard as well as internet devices via ethernet cables. Whereas, in computer networking, a port is an endpoint to a logical connection. The port number shows a category of the port. Ports are assigned as positive 16-bit unsigned integers, which range from 0 to 65535. For E.g. Port 80 is used in HTTP traffic for example. Suppose, netstat -n command is fired on Linux or Windows; it will return a list of the local addresses and ports, and the foreign addresses and port system is connected to.
Port Number Categories
Port numbers are divided into three categories.
- Well-known/System ports: Range 0–1,023
- Registered ports: Range 1,024–49,151
- Dynamic/Private ports: Range 49,152–65,535
1.Well-known/System Ports
Well-known ports also called as system ports, ranges from 0 to 1023 since many of the core services on Unix servers used these ports; also, it requires privilege permissions on the server for implementation.
Here is detailed information about some of the widely used ports.
| Port Number | Service | Usage |
| 7 | Echo | The echo server returns data is received on an originating source. |
| 20 | File Transfer Protocol (FTP) | Data Transfer. |
| 21 | File Transfer Protocol (FTP) | Command Control. |
| 22 | Secure Shell (SSH) | It manages network devices at the command level securely. |
| 23 | Telnet | Remote login service, unencrypted text messages. |
| 25 | Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) | E-mail Routing. It is used to transfer email from source to destination between mail servers. |
| 53 | Domain Name System (DNS) | It converts domain names into IP addresses for network routing. |
| 67-68 | DHCP/BOOTP | It provides a connectionless service model with the help of User Datagram Protocol (UDP). |
| 69 | Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) | It transfers files without the session establishment. |
| 70 | Gopher | It provides gateways to other information systems such as the World-Wide Web, WHOIS WAIS, Archie, etc. It allows search and retrieve information from different locations easily. |
| 80 | Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) | It is a protocol for distributed, hypermedia, collaborative information systems. |
| 110 | Post Office Protocol (POP3) | Used by e-mail clients to retrieve e-mail from a server. |
| 119 | Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) | It helps to connect to Usenet servers and transfer newsgroup articles between systems. |
| 123 | Network Time Protocol (NTP) | It is used to synchronize the devices on the Internet. |
| 137-139 | NetBIOS | It is not a protocol, but it is used in combination with IP with an over TCP/IP (NBT) protocol. It helps to interconnect Microsoft Windows machines. |
| 143 | Internet Message Access Protocol 4 (IMAP4) | To Manage Digital Mail. |
| 161-162 | Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) | It is used by network administrators for network management. |
| 179 | BGP | It is used by ISP (Internet Service Provider) to maintain traffic processing and huge routing tables. |
| 194 | Internet Relay Chat (IRC) | It provides communication in the form of text in an easier way which is based on a client/server networking model. |
| 389 | LDAP | LDAP provides access and maintenance for distributed directory information. It is based on the ITU-T X.500 standard, but it has been altered and simplified to work over TCP/IP networks. |
| 443 | HTTP Secure (HTTPS) | It provides the same functions as HTTP, but it uses a secure connection with the help of SSL or TLS. |
| 636 | Lightweight Directory Access Protocol over TLS/SSL (LDAPS) | LDAPS provides the same functions as LDAP, but it uses a secure connection with the help of SSL or TLS. |
| 520 | RIP | It uses hop count to find the best path between the source and the destination network. |
2. Registered Ports
These ports range from 1024 to 49151 are not controlled or assigned. However, they can be registered to prevent redundancy.
3. Dynamic Ports
These ports range from 49152 to 65535, also known as private or non-reserved ports. These ports are not registered, assigned, or controlled. Dynamic ports are used for private or temporary ports.
Here is a list of some Registered and Dynamic ports.
| Port number | Service |
| 1025 | Microsoft RPC |
| 1026-1029 | Windows Messenger |
| 1080 | SOCKS Proxy |
| 1080 | MyDoom |
| 1194 | OpenVP |
| 1214 | Kazaa |
| 1241 | Nessus |
| 131 | 1 Dell OpenManage |
| 1337 | WASTE |
| 1433-1434 | Microsoft SQL |
| 1512 | WINS |
| 1589 | Cisco VQP |
| 1701 | L2TP |
| 1723 | MS PPTP |
| 1725 | Steam |
| 1741 | Cisco Works 2000 |
| 1755 | MS Media Server |
| 1812-1813 | RADIUS |
| 1863 | MSN |
| 1985 | Cisco HSRP |
| 2000 | Cisco SCCP |
| 2002 | Cisco ACS |
| 2049 | NFS |
| 2082-2083 | cPanel |
| 2100 | Oracle XDB |
| 2222 | DirectAdmin |
| 2302 | Halo |
| 2483-2484 | Oracle DB |
| 2745 | Bagle.H |
| 2967 | Symantec AV |
| 3050 | Interbase DB |
| 3074 | XBOX Live |
| 3124 | HTTP Proxy |
| 3127 | MyDoom |
| 3128 | HTTP Proxy |
| 3222 | GLBP |
| 3260 | iSCSI Target |
| 3306 | MySQL |
| 3389 | Terminal Server |
| 3689 | iTunes |
| 3690 | Subversion |
| 3724 | World of Warcraft |
| 3784-3785 | Ventrilo |
| 4333 | mSQL |
| 4444 | Blaster |
| 4664 | Google Desktop |
| 4672 | eMule |
| 4899 | Radmin |
| 5000 | UPnP |
| 5001 | iperf |
| 5004-5005 | RTP |
| 5050 | Yahoo! Messenger |
| 5060 | SIP |
| 5190 | AIM/ICQ |
| 5222-5223 | XMPP/Jabber |
| 5432 | PostgreSQL |
| 12345 | NetBus |
| 13720-13721 | NetBackup |
| 14567 | Battlefield |
| 15118 | Dipnet/Oddbob |
| 19226 | AdminSecure |
| 19638 | Ensim |
| 20000 | Usermin |
| 24800 | Synergy |
| 25999 | Xfire |
| 27015 | Half-Life |
| 27374 | Sub7 |
| 28960 | Call of Duty |
| 31337 | Back Orifice |
| 33434+ | traceroute |
Conclusion – Networking Ports
Although it might seem obvious from this list that there are a large number of ports missing, the intention here was to cover only the most widely seen and used protocols. Hopefully, this article will enable you to pick the right port number for such services to implement.
Recommended Articles
This is a guide to Networking Ports. Here we discuss the introduction to Networking Ports along with the 3 different categories, respectively. You may also have a look at the following articles to learn more –
