What Port Does VPN Use? [September 2021 Updated]

Different types of VPNs use different ports to establish a secure connection over the Internet. It all depends on the types of protocols that a certain VPN offers. Some providers choose to only support a handful of protocols, while others offer a broad range of VPN protocols. Below is a list of some common VPN protocols and the ports that they use:

• PPTP (Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol) – This protocol uses port 1723 TCP.
• L2TP (Layer Two Tunneling Protocol) – This protocol uses port 1701 TCP, Port 500 UDP, and port 4500 UDP.
• IPSec (Internet Protocol Security) – This protocol uses ports 500 UDP and ports 4500 UDP.
• STP (Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol) – This protocol uses port 443 TCP.
• OpenVPN – This protocol uses port 1194 TCP/UDP and port 443 TCP.

Since we are discussing VPN ports, let’s talk about some ports that are unsafe or can be vulnerable to attacks. Remember, no port is natively secure. Below is a list of some unsafe VPN ports that you should avoid using:

• TCP port 21
• TCP port 23
• TCP/UDP port 53
• TCP port 80
• TCP port 1080
• TCP port 4444

Not all VPNs use secure ports. A lot of VPNs use unsafe ports that can leave you vulnerable to attacks. We recommend going for a trusted VPN provider such as ExpressVPN – 49% off (15-months plan – includes 3 months free).

ExpressVPN servers listen on a range of different ports, and their apps might try connecting to any of these ports (for OpenVPN)

• TCP443
  
• UDP1195
  
• UDP1198
  
• UDP10088 to UDP10098
  
• UDP10188 to UDP10198
  
• TCP10288 to TCP10298

Lightway protocol uses the same port as OpenVPN UDP. Their optimized app can pick a random port in any of the UDP ranges.