Port 630 is officially assigned to RDA (Remote Database Access), a protocol that represents one of the Internet's many well-intentioned standards that never made it.
What RDA Was Supposed to Be
Remote Database Access was an ISO/IEC international standard published in 19931 designed to provide a standard protocol for communication between database clients and database servers. The idea was simple: create one universal way for applications to talk to databases remotely, regardless of vendor.
The standard was adopted by multiple organizations:
- ISO/IEC 9579:1993 (International Organization for Standardization)
- ANSI (American National Standards Institute)
- FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standard for U.S. government)
The protocol defined how a client application would establish connections, send queries, and receive data from remote database servers using TCP/IP networks.2
Why It Failed
Despite early proof-of-concept implementations for major database systems—including Oracle, Rdb, NonStop SQL, and Teradata—RDA never gained commercial support from database vendors.1
The database industry went in different directions. Vendors developed their own proprietary protocols. Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) became the de facto standard for database access. JDBC emerged for Java applications. The market solved the problem in other ways, and RDA became irrelevant before it ever became relevant.
The standard was withdrawn and replaced by ISO/IEC 9579:1999, which was itself withdrawn and replaced by ISO/IEC 9579:2000 (with security enhancements).3 By then, nobody was paying attention.
What This Port Actually Carries
In practice: almost nothing. Port 630 holds a reservation for a protocol that was bypassed by history.
If you find port 630 open on a system, it's more likely to be:
- A misconfigured service
- Legacy software from the early 1990s
- A custom application reusing an abandoned port number
- A security researcher testing what responds
It's not carrying Remote Database Access traffic, because that traffic doesn't really exist anymore.
Why Unassigned and Abandoned Ports Matter
Port 630 is technically assigned, but functionally abandoned. It's one of thousands of ports in the well-known range (0-1023) that hold reservations for protocols that never gained traction or have since been replaced.
These ports serve as:
- Historical records — Evidence of standards efforts that didn't survive
- Namespace preservation — Once assigned, rarely reclaimed, even when obsolete
- Potential security risks — Attackers sometimes use abandoned ports because they're less monitored
Well-Known Ports (0-1023)
Port 630 sits in the well-known port range, which is reserved for services assigned by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA).4 These ports require root/administrator privileges to bind to on most systems, which is why they're reserved for standard, trusted services.
The fact that RDA received a well-known port number indicates that in 1993, people believed this protocol would become a fundamental part of Internet infrastructure. It didn't.
How to Check What's Using Port 630
Even though RDA is obsolete, you might want to verify nothing is listening on this port:
Linux/macOS:
Windows:
If something responds, it's not RDA. It's something else using this port.
The Lesson
Port 630 is a reminder: standards don't succeed because they're well-designed or officially blessed. They succeed because people actually use them.
RDA had the backing of ISO, ANSI, and the U.S. government. It had proof-of-concept implementations from major database vendors. It had a reserved port number. What it didn't have was adoption.
Today, databases talk to applications through dozens of different protocols—PostgreSQL wire protocol, MySQL protocol, MongoDB wire protocol, vendor-specific APIs. The dream of one universal standard is long dead. Port 630 is the gravestone.
Frequently Asked Questions About Port 630
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