What Runs on Port 1179
Port 1179 is the registered port for Backup To Neighbor (B2N), a peer-to-peer backup protocol that operates on both TCP and UDP. The service name is b2n.
This isn't a port you'll find running on most networks today. It was registered in November 2004 by Thomas Fok for a freeware backup solution that had a genuinely interesting premise: what if your neighbors became your backup servers?
The Idea Behind the Protocol
In 2004, hard drives were getting bigger. Most computers had gigabytes of unused space sitting idle. Backup To Neighbor asked a simple question: why let all that capacity go to waste when your neighbor might need somewhere to store their backups?
The protocol implemented a client/server architecture where you could back up your files to another computer on your network—or even across the Internet. Your neighbor backs up to your machine, you back up to theirs. No central server required. No monthly fees. Just two people (or more) sharing unused disk space.
It was peer-to-peer backup before the cloud dominated everything.
How It Worked
The Setup:
- One computer runs as the B2N server (the neighbor providing storage)
- Another computer runs as the B2N client (the one backing up files)
- The client connects to the server on port 1179
The Security: All files and filenames were encrypted with AES-128 during transfer and storage. The server owner couldn't easily snoop on what you were backing up. Compression reduced the bandwidth needed.
The Operation: After initial configuration, everything happened client-side. You didn't need to log into the server or manage it directly. You just ran your backup, and it pushed encrypted data to your neighbor's machine over port 1179.
The system supported rotation backups, LAN or WAN connections, dedicated servers, or true peer-to-peer mode where everyone was both client and server.
What Happened to It
Backup To Neighbor was released as freeware by Melody Software. It solved a real problem: backup storage was expensive, and home users often had no backup strategy at all.
But timing matters. By the mid-2000s, cloud storage started its rise. Dropbox launched in 2007. Carbonite, Mozy, and others were already offering automated cloud backup. The idea of coordinating with your neighbor to manage mutual backups—however clever—couldn't compete with "pay $5/month and never think about it again."
Port 1179 still sits in the IANA registry, officially assigned to b2n. But the protocol is largely dormant. The trust model (letting your neighbor store your encrypted files) and the coordination overhead (what happens when your neighbor's computer is off?) made sense in a world without cheap cloud storage. That world no longer exists.
Why This Port Matters
Port 1179 represents a moment in Internet history when peer-to-peer solutions seemed like the future. Before centralized clouds, before "everything as a service," people were experimenting with distributed networks where users helped each other instead of depending on corporate infrastructure.
Napster did it for music. BitTorrent did it for files. Backup To Neighbor tried to do it for backups.
Most of those experiments lost to centralization—not because the technology was bad, but because convenience beat philosophy. Trusting Amazon or Google with your files is easier than trusting your neighbor, even if your neighbor's computer is encrypted and Amazon's is surveilled.
Port 1179 is a reminder that the Internet didn't have to be built entirely around data centers. We chose that. And we chose it because it was easier.
The Registered Ports Range
Port 1179 sits in the registered ports range (1024-49151). These ports are assigned by IANA to specific services upon request. Anyone can apply to register a port for their protocol or application.
Unlike well-known ports (0-1023), which require root privileges to bind on Unix systems, registered ports can be used by regular user applications. This makes them perfect for third-party software, specialized protocols, and services that don't need the privileged status of standard Internet infrastructure.
The registered range contains thousands of assigned ports, most of which—like port 1179—are rarely seen in the wild. They exist as markers of ideas: protocols someone thought were worth standardizing, even if the world moved on.
Checking What's Listening
If you want to see whether anything is using port 1179 on your system:
On Linux/Mac:
On Windows:
If something appears, it's either Backup To Neighbor (unlikely unless you're deliberately running it) or another application that chose to use this port. Most systems will show nothing—port 1179 sits quiet, waiting for a protocol that the world mostly forgot.
Related Ports
Port 515 — Line Printer Daemon (LPD), another protocol from the pre-cloud era
Port 873 — rsync, the backup and sync protocol that actually survived
Port 3260 — iSCSI, network storage that also imagined using remote disks differently
Frequently Asked Questions About Port 1179
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