Port 1036: The Unassigned Door — Waiting in the Registered Range

What This Port Is

Port 1036 falls within the registered port range (1024–49151), maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). ¹ This range is open for anyone to request port assignments for specific services—web services, protocols, applications, anything that needs a stable address on the network.

But port 1036 has no officially assigned service. No RFC claims it. No protocol standards define it. It exists, allocated and waiting, but it hasn't been claimed.

The Port Space Landscape

To understand port 1036, understand the address space it inhabits:

• Well-known ports (0–1023): Reserved for core Internet services. SSH at 22, HTTP at 80, HTTPS at 443. These are the Main Street addresses.
• Registered ports (1024–49151): Open for assignment to applications and services. This is where port 1036 sits.
• Dynamic/ephemeral ports (49152–65535): Used temporarily by operating systems for outgoing connections. The temporary addresses.

Port 1036 is in the middle territory. Stable enough to be registered. Defined enough to be addressable. But unclaimed. ²

Known Uses

No service is officially assigned to port 1036. Port databases list it, port scanners report it, but nothing in the official registry claims ownership. ³

This doesn't mean nothing runs there in practice. Unassigned ports sometimes host unofficial services, temporary applications, or local network tools. But there's no standard, no RFC, no reason for the wider Internet to converge on port 1036 for anything specific.

How to Check What's Listening

If you want to know what (if anything) is using port 1036 on your machine:

Linux/macOS:

lsof -i :1036
netstat -an | grep 1036
ss -tln | grep 1036

Windows:

netstat -ano | findstr :1036

Network scanning (requires administrative privileges):

nmap localhost -p 1036

If these return nothing, port 1036 is silent on your system—available, allocated, but empty.

Why Empty Ports Matter

The Internet has about 65,000 ports. Only a fraction are actually in use. The rest are like house numbers on a neighborhood that doesn't exist yet—infrastructure before the need arrives.

This abundance was intentional. Early Internet architects designed the port system generously, assuming applications and services would proliferate. They were right. But that generosity means most ports sit empty, especially in the registered range where assignments require explicit requests.

Port 1036 exists in that abundance. It's not broken. It's not reserved for future use. It's just... available. A reminder that the Internet's address space is larger than the Internet we actually use.

If you need a private, unassigned port for a local application or test service, 1036 is a reasonable choice—it's unlikely to conflict with anything registered. But it will never be the default. It will remain quiet, one of thousands, waiting for someone to open the door.