What is HTTP and what port does it use?

HTTP stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol. This is a basic unencrypted protocol used to transfer web pages over networks, and particularly over the Internet. This is increasingly being replaced by HTTPS, which stands for HTTP Secure. HTTPS uses encryption to protect the data content of the messages as they cross networks including the Internet. Many sites, when accessed using HTTP redirect the connection to an HTTPS connection.

By default HTTP uses port 80, while HTTPS uses port 443. However, it is possible to use any port providing the target web site has the appropriate server configured to use that different port. I have an IP camera that I have set up to use HTTP connections over port 4123. This allows me to run a normal HTTP web server on a PC using the normal port 80.

By default, browsers will automatically try ports 80 or 443 for HTTP and HTTPS respectively. If you want to override the default and (say) use port 4123, then the URL changes to http://www.mysite.com:4123/ where the number after the colon is the new port number.

I hope this helps.

8080/80