Bluehost Web Hosting Help

Open New Ports

For security reasons, many unused ports are closed by default. In certain circumstances, we can open those ports for you.

Can You Give Me Access to a Specific Port Number?
What Port Numbers Can You Open?

Can You Give Me Access to a Specific Port Number?

On account of the shared hosting environment, Bluehost restricts port access. Because every account on the server shares a single IP address and no single account is assigned the IP address for the box, most ports are blocked. We block access to certain ports to help avoid having security holes in the firewall and to allow us to monitor and control customers who attempt to abuse the different services that we allow to run through these ports. We have only opened the ports for processes which we are running on our servers (web mail, cPanel, etc.).

To gain access to blocked ports, it is necessary to lease a dedicated IP address through Bluehost. Purchasing a Dedicated IP address allows your account to have access to ports that are normally closed on the shared IP. This applies to both outbound and inbound connections running on non-standard ports.

If you have a dedicated IP and require ports to be opened, you may contact us via Phone or Live Chat. We will add the requested ports without any additional charges.

What Port Numbers Can You Open?

With a dedicated IP address on your account, we can generally open any port over 1024. Ports 1024 and lower are restricted and cannot be opened.

If you would like to purchase a dedicated IP, please log into the cPanel of your hosting account and click on the Dedicated IP tab and follow the wizard to purchase. You will be charged and the dedicated IP will be automatically installed.

Note: Because of the IP address change you may experience a period of about 6-24 hours where your site appears to be non-functional. This is the standard propagation time that is required to update your DNS throughout the world. Please note, your temporary URL will also be changed and will be unavailable while the Dedicated IP is installed on your account. This is normal and you will be able to view your site by visiting your site using your new Dedicated IP within 6-24 hours.

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