Port 567 is assigned to banyan-rpc—the remote procedure call protocol for Banyan VINES, a network operating system that dominated enterprise networking in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The port is still officially reserved by IANA, even though the protocol it served has been extinct for more than two decades.
This is what archaeology looks like in the well-known port range.
What Was Banyan VINES?
VINES stood for Virtual Integrated NEtwork Service.1 It was a network operating system developed by Banyan Systems, first released in 1984 for computers running AT&T's UNIX System V.2 VINES was built on top of the Xerox Network Systems (XNS) protocol stack and implemented a distributed architecture where clients and servers communicated through remote procedure calls.
From 1985 to 1995, VINES dominated the "directory services" space—the way networks kept track of users, resources, and permissions.3 Before Active Directory, before LDAP became ubiquitous, there was VINES StreetTalk, and it worked.
The RPC Protocol on Port 567
Port 567 carried banyan-rpc, the remote procedure call mechanism that allowed VINES clients and servers to communicate across the network. The NetRPC protocol provided a high-level programming interface that made remote services appear local—transparent to both users and applications.4
RPC is how distributed systems talk to each other. A client on one machine calls a function that actually executes on a server somewhere else on the network. The result comes back as if it happened locally. Banyan RPC on port 567 made this work for VINES networks.
The protocol used both TCP and UDP on port 567, with valid static endpoint ranges for VINES SPP (Sequenced Packet Protocol) ports from 250–511.5
Why the Marines Chose VINES
By the late 1980s, the US Marine Corps was searching for simple, off-the-shelf worldwide network connectivity with rich built-in email, file, and print features. In 1988, they standardized on VINES as both their garrison (base) and forward-deployed ground-based battlefield email-centric network operating system.6
Think about that. Port 567 carried military communications across Marine Corps installations worldwide. The same protocol that powered office networks also powered battlefield email systems.
The Well-Known Range and Why This Port Still Matters
Port 567 sits in the well-known port range (0–1023), which means it was assigned by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for a specific, standardized service. These ports are reserved permanently, even when the protocols they served are long dead.
Banyan Systems is gone. VINES hasn't been commercially available since the late 1990s. But port 567 remains reserved, a permanent marker in the Internet's addressing system for a protocol that mattered enough to earn a spot in the well-known range.
This is one of the strange truths about the Internet: it never truly forgets. Ports assigned in the 1980s stay assigned, whether the protocols still run or not. The well-known range is a museum, and port 567 is one of its exhibits.
Today: A Port Nobody Uses
You will almost certainly never see traffic on port 567. The protocol is extinct. VINES networks are gone. If you scan port 567 on a modern system, you'll find nothing listening.
But the reservation remains, because the Internet's port registry preserves history. Every assigned port is a timestamp, a record of what mattered when the Internet was young.
How to Check What's Listening on Port 567
Even though banyan-rpc is extinct, you can still check if anything is listening on port 567:
On Linux or macOS:
On Windows:
You'll almost certainly find nothing. But if you do find something listening on port 567, it's worth investigating—because it shouldn't be there.
Related Ports
- Port 250–511 — Banyan VINES SPP static endpoint range7
- Port 1024–49151 — Registered ports, where newer protocols live after the well-known range filled up
Frequently Asked Questions About Port 567
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