VNC / Live Server
What is Port 5500?
Port 5500 is used by VNC (Virtual Network Computing) for reverse connections, where the VNC server connects back to a listening VNC viewer. This is useful when the server is behind a firewall that doesn't allow incoming connections. The port is also commonly used by VS Code's Live Server extension, which provides a local development server with hot reload for HTML/CSS/JavaScript development. Live Server has millions of installations in VS Code and defaults to port 5500. Additionally, some security and network monitoring tools use this port for agent communication.
Common Uses
- VS Code Live Server extension for web development
- VNC reverse connections
- Static web development with hot reload
- Frontend development and testing
Technical Details
Copy-paste commands to check port 5500 (VNC / Live Server) from your terminal
Test connectivity
nc -zv example.com 5500
curl -v --max-time 5 http://example.com:5500/
telnet example.com 5500
nmap -p 5500 -sV example.com
(echo > /dev/tcp/example.com/5500) 2>/dev/null && echo "open" || echo "closed"
Open port in firewall
sudo ufw allow 5500/tcp
sudo iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 5500 -j ACCEPT
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=5500/tcp && sudo firewall-cmd --reload
Security Considerations
VNC connections on port 5500 may be unencrypted — use VNC over SSH or TLS. Live Server is for development only and should not be exposed to external networks. Bind development servers to localhost. If VNC reverse connections are needed, use SSH tunneling for security.
Popular Ports Reference
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