What Port 1791 Is
Port 1791 sits in the registered port range (1024-49151). These ports are assigned by IANA to specific organizations and services upon request — they're not reserved for system use like the well-known ports below 1024, but they're not ephemeral either. When a company registers a port in this range, they're staking a claim: this one is ours.
Port 1791 belongs to Electronic Arts.
The EA1 Registration
IANA's official registry lists port 1791 as assigned to a service called EA1, registered by a Kirk MacLean at ea.com.1 Both TCP and UDP are claimed. Beyond the name and the registrant's email, there's nothing. No RFC. No technical documentation. No EA support article explaining what EA1 does or which game or service uses it.
This happens more than you'd think. Companies register ports speculatively, for internal tools, for features that shipped differently than planned, or for projects that quietly died. The registry is permanent even when the reason isn't.
What You'll Actually Find on Port 1791
Nothing, most likely. EA's online gaming infrastructure uses a range of documented ports for their current platforms (the EA App, various game backends), and 1791 doesn't appear in any of their published port forwarding guides. If you're seeing traffic on port 1791 in the wild, it's more likely to be dynamic or private use than EA's EA1 protocol.
What Range This Port Belongs To
| Range | Name | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1023 | Well-Known Ports | Assigned to core Internet protocols (HTTP, DNS, SSH) |
| 1024-49151 | Registered Ports | Assigned by IANA to organizations and services |
| 49152-65535 | Dynamic/Ephemeral Ports | Used temporarily by clients for outbound connections |
Port 1791 is firmly in registered territory — claimed, documented in the registry, and essentially silent.
How to Check What's Listening on Port 1791
If you want to see whether anything on your machine is using port 1791:
macOS / Linux:
Windows:
The process ID from netstat can be cross-referenced in Task Manager to find the owning application.
Why Unassigned-in-Practice Ports Matter
The registered port range has 48,128 possible slots. Many are claimed. Some are actively used and well-documented. Others, like port 1791, are claimed but quiet. This matters because:
- Security scanners flag anything open on a registered port. If your application uses 1791 for a custom purpose, expect questions.
- Port collisions happen. Private software sometimes squats on registered ports, creating conflicts when the registered service appears.
- The registry is a trail. Even a ghost registration tells you something — someone at EA thought they needed a dedicated port. That decision has a history, even if the history is undocumented.
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