Apple TV: TCP and UDP ports and protocols used

  • Last Modified: November 26, 2008
  • Article: HT2463
  • Old Article: 305115

Summary

Networked devices, like your Mac, PC, and Apple TV, communicate with each other using specific communication channels known as TCP and UDP ports. For example, your Internet web browser commonly communicates with the Internet using port 80.

Products Affected

AppleTV

Six network ports are used by Apple TV for communications on your network.

  • TCP port 123 is used to communicate with a network time server.
  • TCP port 3689 is used to communicate with iTunes while using the iTunes Library Sharing feature.
  • UDP port 5353 is used by Apple TV for automatically finding computers with iTunes on your network using Bonjour.
  • TCP port 80 is used for communicating with podcast servers.
  • TCP port 80 and 443 are used for basic and secure communications with the iTunes Store via the Internet.
  • TCP port 53 is used for regular DNS.

Note: These ports may also used by other services like MobileMe, You Tube, and Flickr.

These are well-known ports used by Apple products, like iTunes. If you can use all the features of iTunes, these ports are likely already open on your firewall or NAT router.

For a complete list of network ports used by Apple products, see this article.

Additional Information

If data does not sync or stream after entering a passcode, see this article.

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