Port 794 is officially unassigned. According to the IANA Service Name and Transport Protocol Port Number Registry, ports 788-799 are all marked as unassigned—no service name, no protocol allocation, no official purpose.1
What the Well-Known Range Means
Port 794 sits in the well-known ports range (0-1023). These ports are managed by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) and are reserved for standardized services that need a consistent, universally recognized port number.
When a port in this range is unassigned, it means:
- No official service has been allocated to it
- It's being held in reserve for potential future use
- Services should not use it without IANA approval
- Applications using it anyway are operating outside the standard
Why Unassigned Ports Exist
Not every number between 0 and 1023 has a service. The well-known range has hundreds of gaps—reserved space kept available in case a protocol needs a permanent home.
It's like holding a parking spot. The spot exists, it's designated for important use, but right now it's empty. IANA could assign port 794 tomorrow to a new protocol that needs standardization, or it might remain empty forever.
Unofficial Use
Despite being unassigned, port 794 has been mentioned in older documentation as used by Mac OS X RPC-based services, particularly in connection with NetInfo—Apple's hierarchical database system used in older versions of Mac OS X.2
Two important caveats:
- This was never an official IANA assignment
- NetInfo was removed from macOS entirely in version 10.5 (Leopard), released in 2007
If you see port 794 in use today, it's either legacy software or an application that chose this port arbitrarily.
How to Check What's Using Port 794
On your system, you can see if anything is listening on port 794:
On Linux/macOS:
On Windows:
If nothing appears, the port is not in use. If something does appear, you've found a service using this unassigned port—either intentionally or by accident.
Frequently Asked Questions About Port 794
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