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I am having problems starting my apache server, because port 443 is already in use.

It turns out, the system process (PID 4) uses the port 443. I don't have IIS installed, the services.msc shows (predicatbly) no Exchange server running, nor WWW-Services, nor IIS. I have no idea how to find out what service uses that port short of just disabling each service one after the other, and I am not even sure that would help.

I would be grateful if someone could point me towards how I can get my SSL port back, thank you :)

P.S.: Of course "just switch apache to another port for SSL" would solve the problem of not being able to start apache. But I'd still like to know what is so insistent about hogging port 443. :)

Edit: I by now took the 'hard route' and disabled services one after the other. It turned out that the "Routing and RAS" service was the culprit. Thank you all for the valuable input and the new tools in the combat against "WTF does my system do now".

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Related: superuser.com/questions/121901 You could use any of the answers given to help you determine which service is opening port 443. – heavyd Mar 29 '10 at 19:17
Unfortunately, as I am unable (or just too stupid) to find out which service exactely holds the port open, I cannot use "SC Config Servicename Type= own" for a lag of Servicename. Netstat's various incantation point me at the System process, as said, just like TCPView did. "Stacks", as for PE, don't work on Win7 apparently and as I do not look at a svchost.exe instance, I do not have a "Service" column on the TCP/IP tab. Skype is not at fault, nor do I have any other VoIP or P2P software running. But the other question you linked was enlightening to me; thank you. – ClearsTheScreen Mar 29 '10 at 21:41
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6 Answers

up vote 3 down vote accepted

run elevated netstat -ab

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I am a bit surprised. Anything else showed just "the system process" as culprit. This command now claims that it -is- a svchost.exe that holds this port. :| How comes PE / 'other' netstat calls subsumed it under the System process? (Although the port is still shown as held by PID 4 / System.) How can I inspect further? :( – ClearsTheScreen Mar 29 '10 at 22:05
not sure but run PE elevated maybe! – tonyr roth Mar 29 '10 at 22:25
also the following may give you more insight wmic process > test.txt – tonyr roth Mar 29 '10 at 22:27
I did run process explorer as administrator -- and still the port shows up as claimed by "System"; not really much more intel available there :| By now I think it'll be something really stupid I unwittingly did ;) – ClearsTheScreen Mar 29 '10 at 22:40
did u run the wmic command and look at the test.txt file it will give u more insight I think! – tonyr roth Mar 30 '10 at 13:44
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up vote 5 down vote

I bet it's Skype, uncheck the checkbox shown below if you have it installed.

alt text

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+1. Other VoIP clients (and other software like P2P file transfer apps) will listen on ports 80 and 443 if they find nothing else there, though Skype is the most common "offender". I'm not sure why Skype would be showing up as a system owned process though. – David Spillett Mar 29 '10 at 19:00
Unfortunately it is not Skype; nor other VoIP clients (none installed) nor P2P etc. etc. I checked that and it is not only "a system owned process", it is "the system process" (PID 4) – ClearsTheScreen Mar 29 '10 at 21:42
Oddly, I had the same issue as the OP - 443 was taken by svchost.. and yet, turning off Skype fixed it. – Blorgbeard Jul 2 '11 at 15:03
Had this problem. Followed these instructions and figured out it was Skype: mydigitallife.info/… – saturdayplace Mar 15 at 21:41
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up vote 0 down vote

Wireshark will tell you the details. http://www.wireshark.org/ Or TCP Monitor: http://www.itsamples.com/tcp-monitor.html

That'll help.

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tcp-monitor unfortunately could not really help me at all; as for wireshark -- I was unable to generate / capture packets directed at port 443. :( – ClearsTheScreen Mar 29 '10 at 22:25
The only remaining option is Process Explorer (sysinternals) it'll show you proceses with ports. Wireshark is one of the top products in this line, but I can't comprehend why it didn't work for you :s (Did you install the WinPCAP capture driver?) – Adeel Hasan Akbari Mar 30 '10 at 18:10
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up vote 0 down vote

In my case was the DTC (Distributed Transaction Coordinator) process to use the 443 port. In particular I activated WS-AT in DTC and it was using 443 port.

In general I understand that when System process (PID 4) use 443/https port is a internal process of windows (in my case DTC,but I think can be also another process) if it's not an IIS website using it.

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up vote 0 down vote

In my case it was DataManager from F5 Networks which uses Tomcat 6 internally to serve its web pages. I forgot to uninstall that app. Bad design decision, if you ask me.

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up vote 0 down vote

If you have some sort of Virtual Lan driver (like OpenVM, VMWare, etc..) - make sure you 'release' the port before giving it to something else..

Just a quick side-hint ;)

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