How to check open ports on your PC: step-by-step guide

Do you have connection problems with the ports on your PC? Then you have come to the right article to solve it. We are going to make a step by step guide on how to check open ports from your Windows PC. There are many different ways to carry out this check, but we are going to focus on the best and fastest, so that you can solve your problem or question in a matter of minutes.

Ports are a fundamental part of how your PC and system communicate with other devices on the same network. You may need them for different tasks, such as: managing those networks, a new server, or you are simply setting up your home network. This can give you problems and is mainly due to the ports not being open. That is why we are going to explain how to check the ports on your PC.

What are the ports on your PC?

First of all, and in case you are just starting out in computing, we are going to explain to you what the ports on your PC are and why they are so important. A port is basically a virtual connection point between your PC and another device which is used to receive and send data.

Each of those ports is numbered and each of them is also associated with a specific job or protocol. The biggest example since the acronym of what it is associated with will be familiar to you is port 80 which is linked to the http protocol to be able to access different web pages. And since we know that you are thinking that there is also the secure version of http and you know that it is https, yes, there is also port 443 for that connection.

Therefore and knowing this, you can imagine that if the port is open it is because it is receiving and sending data, which means that you can enter those websites thanks to that sending and receiving between different ports. The normal thing is that you have the essentials open, since it is not safe to have more than necessary without being used. Now that you know what a port is, let's get to the main thing: how to check open ports on your PC.

How to check open ports: Use CMD

There are different methods but one of them is based on commands with the Windows CMD. To do this, we will give you the step by step and the exact command so that you know how to check open ports. For that you will first have to open the CMD, which opens in different ways:

• In the search bar type “Command Prompt”
• Press Win + R and type "cmd"

Once you have opened it you will have to write "netstat" and press enter. With this command you will be shown a list of all the active connections on your PC, that is, you will now be able to check the open ports on your PC. To be able to interpret it, you will see that several columns appear, one of which will indicate the port number and the other the local address. The clearest example for you to understand would be a numbering such that "0.0.0.0:80" which means that port 80 (which if you remember our explanation is http) is open.

How to check open ports: Use the task manager

Just like in the CMD We leave you step by step so you know how to check open ports with the task manager:

• First of all, press the "Ctrl + Shift + Esc" keys or you can also open it by right-clicking on the taskbar and selecting the "Task Manager" option.
• Once you are inside you will have to go to the details tab
• Now if it does not appear, you will have to add the ports column. Right click again on either side of the columns and in select columns look for the “ports” option to add that new column.
• Now in a totally visual way you will see which ports are open and which are not

How to check open ports: Use resource monitor

 

Thanks to the fact that Windows has been more than developed for years (it seems like centuries) we have a multitude of tools at our disposal. One of them is the windows resource monitor Although it seems outdated due to its aesthetics, it is still very useful to see which applications are using the ports to communicate with others and send or receive data. To get to the resource monitor follow these steps:

• Go to your Windows taskbar and in search type "Resource Monitor"
• Once you enter the monitor you will have to press the "Network" tab
• Open the TCP section
• Now you will be able to see which local ports are open and again, which programs or applications are connected and open to sending and receiving data

How to check open ports: Use Nmap

In this case Nmap is a third party application, but it is a useful tool for scanning and identifying, that is, in this way and by downloading it you can also learn how to check open ports on your PC. Let's go there with the steps:

• First of all you will have to download and install Nmap. For this we leave you the link to its official website. Avoid downloading it from unofficial websites.
• Once you have it ready you will have to run a port scan. To be able to do this you will have to open a command window and enter the following command "nmap -p- 127.0.0.1" but where you see the number appear you will have to enter your IP address. This will scan all the ports on the PC.
• Reanalyze the results and try to solve what you need.

For us, these are the fastest ways to check the ports in Windows, but we are also going to give you 3 reasons why it is important to have control over the ports:

1. PC security: As we told you at the beginning of the article, having extra ports can be a serious security flaw in your PC. Try to only have the ones you use open.
2. Understanding the connectivity problems: If something does not work, and that something refers to connection or connectivity, most likely if it is not hardware it is a port. Once you know how to check open ports on your PC, you can solve it faster.
3. Improve your network settings: By having information about all the ports you can have your PC's port system more optimized.

We advise you to take this as a basic task in your PC maintenance so that both your network and the security of your computer are in good condition. Just in case, we leave you a related article about how to add more ethernet ports to the router although as you can imagine you can find many more articles related to ports in Tecnobits.