Port

A port is the numbered network endpoint that, together with a host address and a protocol, tells RankGear exactly where to open a remote publishing connection.

What it means in RankGear

Port lives in the Domain tables, alongside the host and protocol that make up a remote publishing target. When RankGear needs to reach a server to publish or verify a file, it does not connect to a bare hostname; it connects to a specific port on that host. The port picks out which service on the machine answers the request, so an SFTP transfer, an FTP session, and a plain web request to the same server each arrive on a different number. The value you store here is the coordinate that turns a host name into a reachable endpoint.

How to interpret it

Read the port as one part of a three-part address, not as a health signal in its own right. If a publishing connection fails, use the visible connection status, the diagnostics, and a read-only credential test to work out whether you are looking at a transient problem or a misconfiguration. A port that is simply wrong for the chosen protocol produces an immediate, repeatable failure — the connection is refused or times out at once — whereas a correct port paired with a server that is briefly unreachable looks intermittent and often clears on a single retry. The distinction matters because RankGear treats a plain refusal as a configuration issue to fix, not something to retry against.

Example

You add a domain and set its publishing target to SFTP but leave the port at 21, the FTP default. RankGear attempts the connection and it is refused straight away, because the SSH service the server uses for SFTP is listening on 22, not 21. Nothing about your username or key is wrong — the address is pointed at a door that is not there. Changing the port to 22 to match the protocol lets the connection complete, and the credential test then confirms the account can write to the intended path.

Important considerations

• A port is a configuration value that describes where a server can be reached; it is not a ranking factor or a quality score, and setting it correctly only determines whether publishing succeeds.
• The port has to match the protocol. A number that is valid for FTP will fail for SFTP, so change the two together rather than in isolation.
• Because the port is part of a live publishing target, treat the whole connection with care: prefer read-only tests where possible, and keep credentials and secrets redacted rather than exposed in logs or reports.
• A refused connection points at the address or the service, not usually at your credentials; distinguish a wrong port from a bad password before retrying, so you are not spending repeated calls on a target that cannot answer.

Related terms

• Protocol
• Output Path Validation

Part of the RankGear glossary · how RankGear measures · the 870 factors.