Port 2306: Unassigned — Claimed by Broadcast Hardware

Port 2306 has no officially assigned service. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), which maintains the global registry of port numbers, lists it as unassigned in the registered port range.¹

That doesn't mean nothing uses it.

What Range This Port Lives In

Port 2306 falls in the registered port range (1024–49151). This range sits between the well-known ports (0–1023), which are reserved for foundational protocols like HTTP, SSH, and DNS, and the ephemeral ports (49152–65535), which operating systems assign temporarily for outbound connections.

Registered ports are where software vendors are supposed to file a claim. You tell IANA what your application is, what port you want, and they record it. No one is obligated to do this, which is why the real world and the registry don't always match.

Known Unofficial Uses

LYNX Technik RemoteIF — LYNX Technik, a German manufacturer of professional broadcast signal processing equipment, uses port 2306 (both TCP and UDP) for their RemoteIF remote control interface. This is the protocol that lets third-party broadcast control software talk to LYNX devices on a network.² It's a narrow, specialized use — you won't encounter it unless you work in broadcast infrastructure — but it's the most documented real-world occupant of this port.

A note on bad information: Several port reference sites claim port 2306 is used by MySQL. This is incorrect. MySQL uses port 3306. The confusion likely stems from a transposition error that propagated across copy-paste port databases. If you see 2306 listed as a MySQL port, disregard it.³

Checking What's Listening on This Port

If you see traffic on port 2306 and want to know what's using it:

# On Linux/macOS — show what process is listening on port 2306
sudo lsof -i :2306

# Or with ss (modern Linux)
sudo ss -tlnp sport = :2306

# On Windows
netstat -ano | findstr :2306

The process name returned will tell you exactly what application claimed the port. If nothing shows up, nothing is actively listening — the port is closed.

Why Unassigned Ports Matter

There are 65,535 ports. IANA has assigned official services to only a few thousand of them. The rest are a mix of unregistered-but-widely-used ports, ports claimed by niche software without filing with IANA, and genuinely empty ports that nothing touches.

This gap between official registry and actual usage is one of the reasons network visibility matters. A port scanner showing activity on an unassigned port isn't necessarily alarming — it might just be LYNX hardware in a broadcast facility, or a developer running a local service on a convenient number. But it also might not be. Unassigned doesn't mean safe; it means uncontrolled.

The port registry is a map. Port 2306 is territory that was never formally named — but that doesn't mean it's empty.