Which port number is used by the Chargen (Character Generator) service?

Which port number is used by the Chargen (Character Generator) service?

• A. 9
• B. 19
• C. 13
• D. 135

Answer: (B)

Charging into the idea behind port numbers: certain services have fixed, well-known port assignments so systems can find them reliably. The Chargen service refers to the Character Generator Protocol, a simple testing tool that streams characters to a client to help measure throughput or test connectivity. Its official port assignment is 19, so the correct choice is the one that uses port 19. For context, the other ports line up with different services: port 9 is the Discard protocol (it just throws away data), port 13 is Daytime (returns the current date and time), and port 135 is the RPC Endpoint Mapper (used by Windows RPC to locate services). Chargen isn’t commonly used today and is often disabled on modern networks due to potential abuse.

Charging into the idea behind port numbers: certain services have fixed, well-known port assignments so systems can find them reliably. The Chargen service refers to the Character Generator Protocol, a simple testing tool that streams characters to a client to help measure throughput or test connectivity. Its official port assignment is 19, so the correct choice is the one that uses port 19.

For context, the other ports line up with different services: port 9 is the Discard protocol (it just throws away data), port 13 is Daytime (returns the current date and time), and port 135 is the RPC Endpoint Mapper (used by Windows RPC to locate services). Chargen isn’t commonly used today and is often disabled on modern networks due to potential abuse.