Port 2693: Former Home of belarc-http

What This Port Is

Port 2693 is an unassigned registered port. It sits in the registered port range (1024–49151), which IANA manages for organizations and protocols that need a stable, documented home. But this particular address is vacant.

It wasn't always. Port 2693 was previously registered to Belarc, Inc. for a service called belarc-http — part of the communication layer for Belarc's software asset management tools, which audit hardware and software configurations on corporate machines. At some point before February 6, 2004, Belarc apparently stopped using it. IANA removed the assignment that day.¹

What runs on 2693 today, on any given machine, is entirely up to whoever configured that machine.

The Registered Port Range

The registered range (1024–49151) is a middle ground between two extremes:

• Well-known ports (0–1023) require root or administrator privileges to bind. These are the foundations: HTTP on 80, HTTPS on 443, SSH on 22.
• Dynamic/ephemeral ports (49152–65535) are assigned temporarily by the operating system for outgoing connections. Your browser uses these when connecting to a server.

The registered range belongs to neither camp. Any process can bind a registered port without special privileges, but doing so consistently — and telling the world about it — requires registering with IANA. Port 2693 had that registration. Now it doesn't.

Ports Can Lose Their Names

Most people assume that if a port has ever been assigned, it stays assigned. That's not how it works.

IANA can remove registrations when a service is discontinued, when an organization requests removal, or simply when an assignment goes stale. Port 2693 is an example of the process working as designed: an organization registered a port, stopped using it, and the address returned to the commons.

This matters for security audits. A port labeled "unassigned" isn't necessarily empty — it may be running something that predates the deregistration, or something new that hasn't been registered. The label tells you what IANA thinks. Your system tells you what's actually there.

What to Do If You See Port 2693 Open

If a firewall scan or network audit shows activity on port 2693, it's worth investigating. On Linux or macOS:

# See what process is listening on port 2693
sudo lsof -i :2693

# Or with ss
ss -tlnp | grep 2693

On Windows:

netstat -ano | findstr :2693

The PID in the output will tell you which process owns the socket. From there, check whether it's expected software — a local dev server, a legacy Belarc installation, or something that shouldn't be there.

Summary

Port 2693 is unassigned, but it has a short history. It was once belarc-http. That name was removed from the registry in 2004, and the port has been open territory since. If you find it open on a machine, the label won't help you — only looking will.