Consolidating ports: Dante Controller communicating with Dante Director 

To make it easier for customers to configure their networks and firewalls for Dante Controller to connect to Dante Director, from 31 August 2025 we are consolidating all traffic between them to port TCP:443, which is the standard port for SSL encrypted web traffic.

We will make a similar change to Dante Domain Manager in a future release; however in most cases there is no firewall configuration required for Dante Domain Manager as it is typically run on-premise behind the firewall.

Please note that Dante devices that are connected to Dante Director (or Dante Domain Manager) still use port UDP:8000 for communication.

What do I need to do?

• Dante Director customers need to update to Dante Controller version 4.16 by 31 August 2025. Otherwise launching Dante Controller from Dante Director will no longer work.
• New Dante Director customers need only to ensure Dante Controller can reach Dante Director on port TCP:443, which in most networks is already allowed.
• Existing Dante Director customers may choose to remove firewall rules for ports TCP:7999, TCP:8443 and TCP:4000 if these are not required for any other purpose, however this is not required. Please see the note below about OEM software applications.
• Dante Domain Manager customers will need to upgrade to Dante Controller version 4.16 or later when this change is rolled out to a future version of DDM. There is nothing to do now.

About OEM software applications

• Some OEM desktop software applications use Dante technology (called ‘Standalone DAPI’) to communicate with Dante enabled devices.
• When these OEM applications are used with devices that are enrolled in Dante Director or Dante Domain Manager, it is necessary to log in using a username and password.
• Many of these applications currently use ports TCP:7999 and TCP:8443, so these may require firewall rules still.
• We are working with OEMs to upgrade their applications to consolidate to port TCP:443 and to improve the experience of logging in to Dante Director and Dante Domain Manager, so please look out for future updates.

About certificates and desktop security software 

• Dante Controller since version 4.13 uses the certificate store of the desktop operating system (Microsoft Windows or MacOS) when communicating with Dante Director.
• Please ensure your operating system is up to date so that current certificates are present.
• Some security software (‘forward proxy’) replaces certificates for encrypted traffic to and from your devices. It is common to install suitable certificates into the certificate store on each desktop node. If these certificates are present, they will be used by Dante Controller when communicating with Dante Director.