The protocols and ports used by Ring devices

Ring devices deliver advanced features such as notifications, video streams and two-way audio to your mobile devices. In order for these features to work properly, Ring Video Doorbells and Security Cameras need a healthy connection in order to contact services on the internet. 

This article describes the protocols (digital message formats and rules) and ports (virtual doorways through your router) that are used by a Ring device and provides recommendations in the event a problem is encountered. 

Please note: These recommendations involve changing security settings for your network. Please ensure you understand the reason for making changes prior to making any adjustments.

Ports

Ring devices use your internet connection to transmit audiovisual data and provide connectivity to your mobile devices and deliver software updates. Ring devices connect over the following ports: 

• HTTPS (port 443) 
• DNS (port 53) 
• NTP (port 123) 
• TCP (port 8557) 

These are well-known ports and it is unlikely that your device will have trouble accessing them.

In addition to the ports above, your Ring device makes several other types of connections.  

• In order to maintain communication paths for your mobile device, the Ring device communicates with the Ring Socket Service (RSS) using TCP on ports 9998, 9999.
• Live View

  video is set up using the socket connection to our servers on ports 443/9002.
• Audiovisual data is transported using UDP to ports negotiated during WebRTC SDP negotiation. These ports can range from 16500 to 65000.
• In rare cases, we may use STUN servers for transporting media using TCP on ports 443/19302.

Generally, Ring devices and the Ring application can access the ports they need without any problems. Occasionally a firewall on the router (gateway) in your home may be configured to block one or more of these ports. 

It is also possible that your Internet Service Provider (ISP) may be blocking these ports. In such cases, the Ring device won’t be able to respond to Live View requests from your mobile device and you may receive motion notifications (or ding events in the case of the doorbell) but find yourself unable to connect to the video.

Fixing firewall issues

If you suspect your gateway is blocking the ports needed, you can change the firewall configuration to allow the listed protocols and ports and/or make your firewall settings less strict. 

If the problem is not with the gateway then it may be necessary to contact your ISP and explain the problem and communicate the ports detailed in the table below to see if they can assist in unblocking them.