What Port 3560 Is
Port 3560 is assigned to INIServe, a client-server utility written by Peter Moylan for IBM's OS/2 operating system. It handles both TCP and UDP, and was registered with IANA in August 2002.1
The assignment is official. The software is real. The user base is very small.
What INIServe Does
OS/2 stores application settings in INI files — binary files that hold preferences, window positions, and configuration data for programs. If you ran OS/2 server software (a mail server, an FTP server) on a machine in another room or another building, editing those configuration files remotely was awkward.
INIServe solves that problem. You run the INIServe daemon on the OS/2 machine, and a client on your local machine. The client connects over port 3560 and lets you read and write INI file entries as if you were sitting in front of the server.2
Moylan used it primarily with his own OS/2 server software — Weasel (a mail server) and FtpServer — so administrators could manage those programs without walking to the machine.
The Range This Port Belongs To
Port 3560 falls in the registered port range (1024–49151). These are ports that anyone can request IANA assign to their software, as long as the name isn't already taken. Registration doesn't mean the software is widely used — it means someone filled out the paperwork and IANA said yes.
The registered range sits between the well-known ports (0–1023, reserved for foundational Internet services like HTTP, DNS, and SMTP) and the ephemeral ports (49152–65535, used for temporary client-side connections). It's a middle tier: more structured than random, less prestigious than the top thousand.
Why This Port Exists
By 2002, OS/2 had already been marginalized by Windows. But a small, devoted community kept running OS/2 servers — particularly in Europe — because the system was genuinely stable and capable for server workloads. Peter Moylan was part of that community, writing and maintaining server software for an OS the mainstream had written off.
Registering a port with IANA was the right thing to do. It prevented conflicts with other software. It was tidy. Moylan did it even though the audience was small and nobody required it.
That's the kind of developer who registers a port: not someone seeking recognition, but someone who simply does things correctly.
Seeing It in the Wild
You are extraordinarily unlikely to encounter port 3560 in normal network activity. If you do see it, it's almost certainly either:
- A legacy OS/2 installation running INIServe
- A developer or application that chose this port number informally for an unrelated purpose
To check what's actually listening on this port on your own machine:
Linux / macOS:
Windows:
If something is listening and it's not an OS/2 system, look up the process ID to identify what it is. Port assignments are advisory — any software can use any port.
Frequently Asked Questions
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