How to Check if Port is Open

Simple Way on How to Check if Port is Open

There is no day one can comfortably say that he/she has mastered all the tips and tricks of a computer. Your computer becomes even more “complicated” when it is connected to the internet. The word complicated has been put in quotes to simply mean that anyone can troubleshoot any computer problem with ease. If you are always connected to the internet, you may have connection issues at some point. This may happen when a port gets blocked either by the firewall or the company offering you the internet service normally referred to as Internet Service Providers (ISP). In most cases, the ports get blocked to keep away spams, viruses or any other malicious activities. Here, you will need to learn to know how check if port is open or closed.

Simple Way to Check if a Port is Open or Closed

To check if port is open is a very simple endeavor that just requires the internet. Port checker utilities are available in plenty online and the good news is that they are free to use. As a free online tool you are also free to choose whatever you want to use since they are similar. They are mainly used to check ports in your computer that are open. Its main goal is to determine the port forwarding activity that may have taken place. Your computer may want to send an email but because the ISP or firewall becomes suspicious, the port responsible for that will be blocked and you won’t complete your request. Instead of calling a computer technician to troubleshoot, all that you need to do is to use a port checker tool to diagnose. It is also a measure of security because it may turn out to be suspicious when you realize that a port which was known to be closed is open.

A Quick Look on Ports

It may sound weird to state that the number of starts at 1 and ends at 65535 but the good news is that most of them are hardly in use. You will just need to grasp commonly used ones as they will be of much help when having connection issues.

One may just needs to know few of them like:

  • HTTP: 80
  • SMTP: 25
  • FTP: 20 and 21

The HTTP is an acronym for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol, SMTP for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol while FTP is File Transfer Protocol.

When it comes to port forwarding, it will involve the translating the port number which is the address then the packets are accepted and then it’s forwarded by the use of a routing table. The main reason for this is to make sure that a remote computer is connected to a particular program such as where a public server operates in a private network.

All in all this is a simple concept which any computer user can understand. To check if port is open therefore does not need any complex program but this tool can do it. The router too also provides a manual which you can get detailed information which will guide you all through.

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