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Port 119 (NNTP)

Network News Transfer Protocol for Usenet; 563 is NNTP over TLS.

Well-known (system) port, 0-1023 TCP Email Expose only to trusted sources

What port 119 is used for

Network News Transfer Protocol for Usenet; 563 is NNTP over TLS.

Security: should port 119 be open?

Expose only to trusted sources. Commercial Usenet servers require authentication; prefer 563.

IANA assignment

Service nameProtoDescriptionAssigneeReference
nntp TCP Network News Transfer Protocol IESG RFC 3977
nntp UDP Network News Transfer Protocol IESG RFC 3977

Registry dates for this port: last modified 2018-07-06.

Check what is listening on port 119

Linux: is anything listening on TCP 119?
sudo ss -tlnp 'sport = :119'
Linux / macOS: which process owns the port
sudo lsof -nP -i :119
Older Linux / BSD (net-tools)
sudo netstat -tlnp | grep ':119 '
Windows (Command Prompt)
netstat -ano | findstr :119
Windows (PowerShell)
Get-NetTCPConnection -LocalPort 119 -State Listen | Select LocalAddress,OwningProcess

Test it from outside

From another machine
nc -vz -w 5 HOST 119
From Windows
Test-NetConnection HOST -Port 119

Allow only trusted sources on port 119 in the firewall

Replace 203.0.113.10 with the address or network you trust. With ufw, make sure the default incoming policy is deny.

ufw (one trusted source)
sudo ufw allow from 203.0.113.10 to any port 119 proto tcp
iptables
sudo iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 119 -s 203.0.113.10 -j ACCEPT
sudo iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 119 -j DROP
nftables
sudo nft add rule inet filter input ip saddr 203.0.113.10 tcp dport 119 accept
sudo nft add rule inet filter input tcp dport 119 drop
Windows Firewall
New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName 'TCP 119 trusted' -Direction Inbound -Protocol TCP -LocalPort 119 -RemoteAddress 203.0.113.10 -Action Allow

Related ports

563NNTP over TLS25SMTP117uucp-path118sqlserv120cfdptkt121erpc

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Assignment data: IANA port number registry (public domain), retrieved 2026-11-10.