What Port 1962 Is
Port 1962 sits in the registered ports range (1024–49151). These ports are assigned by IANA to specific services and applications — anyone can request one, and the assignment is recorded in the official registry. Unlike the well-known ports below 1024, registered ports don't require elevated privileges to open, and they carry no special system authority.
IANA's registry shows port 1962 assigned to BIAP-MP, registered in August 2005 by Louis Slothouber at BIAP Systems (contact: lpslot@biap.com). Both TCP and UDP are listed.1
What BIAP-MP Was
BIAP Systems — Broadband Interactive Applications — was a Plano, Texas company founded in 1998 that built interactive software for digital cable television. Their technology delivered personalized content directly to subscribers' TV screens: stock tickers, local weather, sports scores, community news — all running on cable set-top boxes through partnerships with Time Warner Cable, DISH Network, and other providers.2
BIAP-MP was almost certainly their middleware protocol — the "MP" likely standing for something like "Media Protocol" or "Message Protocol" — handling communication between their servers and the set-top box clients deployed in millions of homes.
In 2010, BIAP Systems rebranded as FourthWall Media, an Emmy-nominated company focused on interactive television. FourthWall Media eventually faded out as the cable industry shifted. The IANA registration for port 1962 was never updated or released.3
The port is officially assigned. The company is gone. No one is using this port for BIAP-MP today.
What You Might Actually See on Port 1962
Almost certainly nothing from BIAP Systems. If you see traffic on port 1962, it's more likely:
- Custom application traffic — developers sometimes pick obscure registered ports for internal tools, assuming no one else is using them
- Malware or remote access tools — uncommon ports occasionally appear in attacker toolkits
- Misconfigured software — something bound to the wrong port
If port 1962 is open on a machine you control and you didn't put it there, investigate it.
How to Check What's Listening
On Linux or macOS:
On Windows:
Then cross-reference the process ID against your running processes. If the process is unfamiliar, that's worth understanding before you decide whether to allow or block the traffic.
Why Ghost Registrations Exist
The registered port space has thousands of these: names in the IANA registry attached to companies, projects, or protocols that no longer exist. IANA doesn't automatically clean them up. A port stays assigned until someone explicitly requests its release — and abandoned companies don't file paperwork.
This creates a curious artifact. Port 1962 is simultaneously "taken" and "empty." No one owns it in any practical sense, but it's not free to claim either. It exists in bureaucratic limbo, a record of software that once ran on millions of set-top boxes and is now just a number in a registry.
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