# WHATPORT(5298)

## NAME

port 5298 — XMPP link-local messaging (presence) — Serverless XMPP between machines on the same LAN — the old Bonjour/iChat-style chat.

Protocol: TCP/UDP  
IANA registry

## DESCRIPTION

IANA registered 5298 in 2008 as presence, for XMPP link-local messaging: peers advertise _presence._tcp over mDNS and then open a direct XMPP stream to each other with no server in the middle, as described in XEP-0174. Apple's iChat/Messages Bonjour mode popularised it, and Pidgin and Gajim implement the same scheme. Seeing it means a desktop chat client with local discovery turned on, not a chat server.

## EXPOSURE

**Expose with care.** Link-local by design and unauthenticated — fine on a trusted LAN, and it has no business being routed or forwarded anywhere.

## CHECK

```sh
dns-sd -B _presence._tcp local.
```

## SEE ALSO

- spec — [XEP-0174 — Serverless Messaging](https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0174.html) (xmpp.org)
- iana — [IANA port registry — 5298 (presence)](https://www.iana.org/assignments/service-names-port-numbers/service-names-port-numbers.xhtml?search=5298) (iana.org)

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HTML: <https://whatport.net/5298/> · JSON: <https://whatport.net/5298.json> · full dataset: <https://whatport.net/ports.json>