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I am setting up a software on a dedicated machine that I would like to be accessible from most places, through corporate firewalls, etc. I need to specify two ports for the software and I'm looking for some sort of report indicating which ports are open and accessible through firewalls.

One of the ports I'm thinking about is port 80 (normal http). The other I'm considering is 8080.

I heard that using 443 (https) is a bad idea, especially if we're not using https on it, because that might confuse the firewall systems.

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@mfinni @joeqwerty - not sure if we're on the same page. I need to setup a software on my server which has to be on two public facing ports. I want to learn what port numbers are most accessible so as to prevent problems arising from firewall blocking them – Alan Beats May 25 '11 at 18:40
I think you've overlooked what should be really obvious - we only open ports as needed, so you won't simply be able to use any two of them because they will already be in use. – John Gardeniers May 26 '11 at 10:17
@John - please see comment to mfinni for clarity about the quesiton – Alan Beats May 26 '11 at 12:57
@Alan, I think you've missed the point. For your software to be able to use two ports, two additional ports must be opened on the firewall because you cannot simply use those that are already open. – John Gardeniers May 26 '11 at 13:18
@John - he's installing something on his own server, he wants to make sure he can hit it from networks not his own, so it's outbound ports. If he sets it up to listen to port 80 and 443, he'll probably never be blocked by someone else's firewall. – mfinni May 26 '11 at 13:49
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In a well-managed environment, no ports are "typically open", let alone automatically forwarded to your device, whatever it is. If you need to do remote management, you should really think about security from the ground up, and probably assume that you should be doing this over a VPN connection.

/edit : From my first reading of your question, it sounded like you were talking about distributing software to other companies. If you're trying to run software on a single server, and want to make sure that you can get to it and are concerned about outbound blocked ports, that makes more sense. Yeah, just use two commonly-used ports for other services. 80 and 443 would be fine. Why two ports, though?

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The software that I'm installing (on my server) needs me to specify two ports upon which certain services are exposed. Other client computers connect to these ports. – Alan Beats May 26 '11 at 12:56
I'm wondering why it needs two ports. What's the software? – mfinni May 26 '11 at 13:48
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There aren't any open ports in a default "typical" firewall. Firewalls come with no inbound traffic rules configured. Configuring inbound traffic rules is specific to each scenario and is dependent on the needs of the entity implementing those inbound rules.

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