To open firewall ports for SEP you need to know the following ports:
| Number | Port Type | Initiated by | Listening Process | Description |
| 80, 8014 | TCP | SEP Clients | svchost.exe (IIS) | Communication between the SEPM manager and SEP clients and Enforcers. (8014 in MR3 and later builds, 80 in older). |
| 443 | TCP | SEP Clients | svchost.exe (IIS) | Optional secured HTTPS communication between a SEPM manager and SEP clients and Enforcers. |
| 1433 | TCP | SEPM manager | sqlservr.exe | Communication between a SEPM manager and a Microsoft SQL Database Server if they reside on separate computers. |
| 1812 | UDP | Enforcer | w3wp.exe | RADIUS communication between a SEPM manager and Enforcers for authenticating unique ID information with the Enforcer. |
| 2638 | TCP | SEPM manager | dbsrv9.exe | Communication between the Embedded Database and the SEPM manager. |
| 8443 | TCP | Remote Java or web console | SemSvc.exe | HTTPS communication between a remote management console and the SEPM manager. All login information and administrative communication takes place using this secure port. |
| 9090 | TCP | Remote web console | SemSvc.exe | Initial HTTP communication between a remote management console and the SEPM manager (to display the login screen only). |
| 8005 | TCP | SEPM manager | SemSvc.exe | The SEPM manager listens on the Tomcat default port. |
| 39999 | UDP | Enforcer |  |
Communication between the SEP Clients and the Enforcer. This is used to authenticate Clients by the Enforcer. |
| 2967 | TCP | SEP Clients | Smc.exe | The Group Update Provider (GUP) proxy functionality of SEP client listens on this port. |
The Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager (SEPM) use two web servers: Internet Information Services (IIS) and Tomcat. IIS uses port 80 (or 8014) and 443 – Tomcat uses port 9090 and 8443. The communication between IIS and Tomcat uses the HTTP protocol. IIS uses port 9090 to talk to Tomcat, Tomcat uses port 80 to talk to IIS.
Client-Server Communication:
For IIS SEP uses HTTP or HTTPS between the clients or Enforcers and the server. For the client server communication it uses port 80 (or 8014) and 443 by default. In addition, the Enforcers use RADIUS to communicate in real-time with the manager console for clients authentication. This is done on UDP port 1812.
Remote Console:
9090 is used by the remote console to download .jar files and display the help pages.
8443 is used by the remote console to communicate with SEPM and the Replication Partners to replicate data.
Client-Enforcer Authentication:
The clients communicate with the Enforcer using a proprietary communication protocol. This communication uses a challenge-response to authenticate the clients. The default port for this is UDP 39,999.