Port 680 is a ghost port. It sits in the well-known range (0-1023) where ports are supposed to be officially assigned by IANA, but it has no formal registration. Instead, it's haunted by a service most people have forgotten: AppleShare IP Web server.
What Range Does Port 680 Belong To?
Port 680 falls in the well-known ports range (0-1023). These ports are supposed to be registered with IANA and used only for officially assigned services. In practice, though, not every port in this range has an assignment.
Well-known ports are meant for standard Internet services that everyone agrees on—HTTP on 80, HTTPS on 443, SSH on 22. Port 680 doesn't have that status, despite living in that neighborhood.
The Unofficial Tenant: AppleShare IP Web Server
According to various network databases, port 680 has been unofficially used by AppleShare IP Web server.1 This was part of Apple's enterprise server offering in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when Apple was trying to compete in the server market with Mac OS X Server.
AppleShare IP was Apple's file and print server software. The web administration component apparently claimed port 680 for its interface, but Apple never formally registered it with IANA.
By the mid-2000s, Apple had moved away from this architecture. Modern macOS Server (which itself was discontinued in 2022) doesn't use port 680. If you see traffic on this port today, it's likely either:
- A very old Mac OS X Server installation still running
- Something else that happened to pick the same port number
- A security scan probing well-known ports
Mac OS X RPC Services
Port 680 also falls within the broader range (600-1023) that Mac OS X used for RPC-based services like NetInfo.2 NetInfo was Apple's directory services system before they switched to Open Directory and LDAP. Like AppleShare IP, it's a piece of computing history.
Why Unassigned Ports Matter
The fact that port 680 exists in the well-known range without an official assignment tells you something about how the Internet actually works versus how it's supposed to work.
In theory: Well-known ports are carefully managed, officially assigned, and universally recognized.
In practice: Companies sometimes claim port numbers, use them in shipping products, and never bother with the paperwork. If the service isn't widely adopted, nobody notices or cares. The port becomes a digital ghost town.
Unassigned ports in the well-known range are actually useful for:
- Custom services that need a predictable port but don't require Internet-wide coordination
- Internal applications that won't conflict with standard services
- Legacy systems that claimed ports before formal registration was common
The risk is collision—two different services using the same port and causing conflicts. But in the well-known range, this rarely happens because most organizations respect the official assignments.
How to Check What's Listening on Port 680
On most systems, you can check if anything is using port 680:
Linux/macOS:
Windows:
If nothing returns, the port is closed. If you see a process, you've found either a vintage Mac server or something unexpected.
You can also scan a remote system (that you own or have permission to scan):
The Takeaway
Port 680 is officially nobody's. Unofficially, it belonged to AppleShare IP Web server—a piece of Apple's enterprise ambitions that came and went without leaving much trace.
If you encounter port 680 in the wild, you're probably looking at either legacy Mac infrastructure or something that coincidentally chose the same number. Either way, it's a reminder that the Internet's addressing system is more anarchic than the official registries suggest.
The ports that matter are the ones people actually use. The rest are just numbers, waiting.
Frequently Asked Questions About Port 680
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