Port 326: Unassigned — A Gap in the Well-Known Range

Port 326 has no official service assigned to it. It's part of an unassigned range (ports 325-332) within the well-known ports space.¹

What "Well-Known" Means

Port 326 sits in the well-known ports range (0-1023). These are the Internet's most restricted addresses—ports that require elevated privileges to bind to on Unix-like systems. They're assigned by IANA through IETF Review or IESG Approval.²

This is the carefully managed space. Port 22 for SSH. Port 80 for HTTP. Port 443 for HTTPS. These numbers matter because they're baked into how the Internet works.

The Gap

And then there's port 326. Unassigned since the registry began. Nobody has asked IANA to assign it. No protocol needs it. It's a gap—one of many scattered throughout the well-known range.

The fact that gaps exist here is actually remarkable. The well-known range is finite (only 1,024 ports), and these numbers are valuable. But IANA doesn't assign them frivolously. A port number in this range means something has been formally standardized, documented in an RFC, and approved through the IETF process.

Port 326 hasn't met that bar. Nothing has.

Why Unassigned Ports Matter

Unassigned doesn't mean unused. Applications can bind to port 326 for private purposes—local services, internal tools, development servers. But there's no guarantee. No standard. No expectation that port 326 means anything in particular.

This is the difference between the official Internet and the working Internet. Officially, port 326 is silent. In practice, someone somewhere might be running something on it right now. You'd never know unless you checked.

Checking What's Listening

On Unix-like systems (Linux, macOS):

sudo lsof -i :326
# or
sudo netstat -nlp | grep :326

On Windows:

netstat -ano | findstr :326

If something responds, you've found a private use. If not, the port is dormant.

The Bigger Picture

The well-known range contains about 1,024 ports. Not all of them are assigned. Some ranges are reserved for future use. Some are marked as unassigned and simply wait.

Port 326 is one of the waiting ports. It has no history, no RFC, no protocol. It's a number in a registry that nobody has claimed.

Maybe someday a new protocol will need a well-known port number, and the IETF will assign port 326. Maybe not. Either way, the gap remains—a quiet reminder that even in the most managed parts of the Internet, there's space left over.

Related Ports

• Ports 325-332: The entire unassigned range containing port 326¹
• Port 1-1023: The complete well-known ports range where port 326 resides