Disable Skype from Using, Opening or Listening on Port 80 and 443

If you have running skype in your system and you now try to install web server or a program that need to use HTTP port 80 or HTTPS port 443, then there possibly an error message saying that the port 80 or 443 has been in used or occupied by another application. Though you don't have currently installed any web server like Apache or IIS (Microsoft Internet Information Service).

So you need to investigate which program is using/opening/listening on port 80 or 443. In the post, How to check or identify which process is listening to port 80 in windows it is clearly discussed who you can know which process listening on which port. So you can know the process name from that post.

Now our concern is about skype. Skype allows users to use port 80 and 443 as an alternatives for incoming connections. Skype uses port 80 and 443 to allow Skype behind firewall to connect to peer or accept incoming connection from peers.

Only one program can open/use/listen one port at a time. So if skype uses port 80 other program will not be able to use it. Skype uses port 80 and port 443 (for SSL HTTP connection) and thus prevent other applications which require such port from working properly. So to make important program to work like web server we need to disable skype to use port 80 and port 443. Also, leaving the port 80 and 443 opens and listening also has security risk where the port can be scanned by malicious virus or hacker to launch attack or infection.

If you want to use skype and also web sever then you must turn off and disable Skype usage of and listening on port 80 and port 443. following is the steps to do this.

1) Open the Skype window.

2) Click on Tools menu.

3) Select Options.

4) Click on Advanced tab.

5) Go to Connection sub-tab.

6) Untick or uncheck the check box for "Use port 80 and 443 as an alternatives for incoming connections option."

7) Click on Save button and then restart Skype to make the change effective.

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