Which port is used by HTTP in a non-SSL context?

Which port is used by HTTP in a non-SSL context?

• A. 70
• B. 53
• C. 7
• D. 80

Answer: (D)

The essential idea is that certain port numbers are conventionally assigned to common services. For HTTP in its unencrypted form, the default port is 80. That’s the standard address browsers use when you type http:// and connect to a web server. In contrast, HTTPS, which is HTTP over TLS/SSL, uses port 443. The other numbers listed correspond to different services (for example, DNS on 53, a historical echo service on 7, and Gopher on 70), so they aren’t used for regular HTTP traffic. While HTTP can be configured to run on non-standard ports, port 80 is the default for non-SSL web traffic.

The essential idea is that certain port numbers are conventionally assigned to common services. For HTTP in its unencrypted form, the default port is 80. That’s the standard address browsers use when you type http:// and connect to a web server. In contrast, HTTPS, which is HTTP over TLS/SSL, uses port 443. The other numbers listed correspond to different services (for example, DNS on 53, a historical echo service on 7, and Gopher on 70), so they aren’t used for regular HTTP traffic. While HTTP can be configured to run on non-standard ports, port 80 is the default for non-SSL web traffic.