# WHATPORT(119)

## NAME

port 119 — NNTP — Usenet news transport and reading — NNTP in the clear, with NNTPS on 563.

Protocol: TCP  
IANA registry

## DESCRIPTION

NNTP, current spec RFC 3977, moves Usenet articles between news servers and serves readers with commands like GROUP, ARTICLE and POST over a line-oriented text session. INN and Diablo are the common server implementations, and commercial Usenet providers still run large farms of them. Port 119 is the cleartext port; TLS-wrapped NNTPS lives on 563 and is what providers push clients toward. Seeing 119 open usually means a real news server or a peering endpoint, not an accident.

## EXPOSURE

**Expose with care.** Public read-only news service on 119 is fine by design, but any authenticated feed or posting account should be on 563 so credentials are not sent in the clear.

## CHECK

```sh
printf 'QUIT\r\n' | nc -v TARGET 119
```

## SEE ALSO

- spec — [RFC 3977 — Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP)](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3977.html) (rfc-editor.org)
- source — [InterNetNews (INN) source repository](https://github.com/InterNetNews/inn) (github.com)
- docs — [INN documentation](https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/software/inn/) (eyrie.org)
- iana — [IANA Service Name and Transport Protocol Port Number Registry](https://www.iana.org/assignments/service-names-port-numbers/service-names-port-numbers.xhtml) (iana.org)

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HTML: <https://whatport.net/119/> · JSON: <https://whatport.net/119.json> · full dataset: <https://whatport.net/ports.json>