How do I open port 8080

[DonJ1229]

Two applications I use (ACT and Sage Businessworks) communicate using port 8080. On one computer I cannot get port 8080 to show up using netstat -an. On those that work, I get TCP 0.0.0.0:8080 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING.

I have tried entering the port in Windows Firewall and also turning it off. Neither works.

 

[dberg35]

is your pc behind a router? If so then you need to poen it there.

 

[smah]

netstat -a will inform you of all listening connections on the local machine, unrelated to any router. Generally speaking the way to 'open' any port, is to have some application listening on that port. If your software is correctly listening on that port, but netstat tells you that it's not, then the likely problem is a software firewall between the app & the network connection.

 

[DonJ1229]

This is on a single workstation, no network connection is needed. I don't know of any other places to look for a firewall--see attached.

 

[kmcferrin]

Netstat doesn't start anything communicating, it just reports what is communicating.

There should be some sort of software acting as a client or server (most likely) that puts a listener on 8080. Make sure that software is running.

 

[DonJ1229]

What software would I look for? On my other machine, the port is listening upon bootup.

 

[kmcferrin]

The software that is supposed to be listening on port 8080, whatever that is. From your OP I'm assuming either ACT or Sage.

 

[DonJ1229]

Sage is saying that something else is blocking the port; that the workstation should boot up listening to 8080. Is this incorrect?

 

[kmcferrin]

I don't know anything about Sage. If the listener is installed as a service then there could be something preventing the service from starting. If it's just a program that runs on startup it may have been deleted from the Startup group, or the registry key to start it in HKLM\Software\Microsoft\CurrentVersion\Run may have been deleted.

My thinking (without knowing anything about Sage) is this:

1. It's supposed to run on startup and start listening on 8080.
2. It is not listening on 8080.
3. Either the software isn't starting on bootup like it's supposed to or something else is listening on 8080 which is preventing the software from starting correctly.

Try running 'netstat -b'. It will list all of the ports that your PC is listening on along with the executable that is doing the listening. When I run it on my system I get:

C:\Windows\system32>netstat -b

Active Connections

  Proto  Local Address          Foreign Address        State
  TCP    127.0.0.1:6999         MYPCNAME:51565       ESTABLISHED
 [tmproxy.exe]
  TCP    127.0.0.1:6999         MYPCNAME:51570       ESTABLISHED
 [tmproxy.exe]
  TCP    127.0.0.1:6999         MYPCNAME:51572       ESTABLISHED
 [tmproxy.exe]
  TCP    127.0.0.1:6999         MYPCNAME:51578       ESTABLISHED
 [tmproxy.exe]
  TCP    127.0.0.1:6999         MYPCNAME:51579       ESTABLISHED
 [tmproxy.exe]
  TCP    127.0.0.1:49784        MYPCNAME:49785       ESTABLISHED
 [firefox.exe]
  TCP    127.0.0.1:49785        MYPCNAME:49784       ESTABLISHED
 [firefox.exe]
  TCP    127.0.0.1:49786        MYPCNAME:49787       ESTABLISHED
 [firefox.exe]
  TCP    127.0.0.1:49787        MYPCNAME:49786       ESTABLISHED
 [firefox.exe]
  TCP    127.0.0.1:51565        MYPCNAME:6999        ESTABLISHED
 [firefox.exe]
  TCP    127.0.0.1:51570        MYPCNAME:6999        ESTABLISHED
 [firefox.exe]
  TCP    127.0.0.1:51572        MYPCNAME:6999        ESTABLISHED
 [firefox.exe]
  TCP    127.0.0.1:51578        MYPCNAME:6999        ESTABLISHED
 [firefox.exe]
  TCP    127.0.0.1:51579        MYPCNAME:6999        ESTABLISHED
 [firefox.exe]
  TCP    192.168.1.101:51566    tek-tips:http          ESTABLISHED
 [tmproxy.exe]
  TCP    192.168.1.101:51571    tek-tips:http          ESTABLISHED
 [tmproxy.exe]
  TCP    192.168.1.101:51574    tek-tips:http          ESTABLISHED
 [tmproxy.exe]
  TCP    192.168.1.101:51583    tek-tips:http          ESTABLISHED
 [tmproxy.exe]
  TCP    192.168.1.101:51585    tek-tips:http          ESTABLISHED
 [tmproxy.exe]

C:\Windows\system32>

In my example you can see the "Status" column shows "Established" for all of the connections. If I had a service listening on a port I would see "Listening" instead of "Established." On the left side is the local address and port in use. That would be the port on the machine that ran netstat. On the right side is the foreign host address and port in use. That would be the machines that are either connecting to us or that we are connecting to.

On the next line (which really has wrapped from the far right side) you see the name of the executable that is using the connection in brackets. In my case I'm running Trend Micro Internet Security, which includes a web proxy that performs antivirus scanning. That's why you see TMProxy.exe listed on port 6999, that's the executable that does the proxying and the port that it listens on. You'll also see several entries where Forefox.exe has connected to the proxy on my local PC on port 6999. At the bottom you'll see where the TMProxy.exe has connected to tek-tips on http (port 80) as well.

In your case all you should have to do is look for something in the Local Address column that includes port 8080 and then see what the executable is that's using it.