1194 OpenVPN UDP
Reference for UDP port 1194, commonly associated with OpenVPN.
What it's for
Port 1194 is the default port for OpenVPN, one of the most widely used open-source VPN solutions, valued for combining strong, well-vetted encryption (built on OpenSSL) with flexible configuration across nearly every platform. Both commercial VPN providers and self-hosted setups (a common choice for accessing a home network or private cloud infrastructure remotely) commonly run on this port.
Protocol basics
OpenVPN defaults to UDP on port 1194 for lower latency and less overhead than TCP, since VPN traffic is often itself carrying TCP connections — tunneling TCP inside TCP can cause a subtle performance problem known as "TCP meltdown" under packet loss. OpenVPN can also be configured to run over TCP (sometimes on port 443 specifically, to blend in with regular HTTPS traffic and get through restrictive firewalls), which trades some efficiency for better compatibility with networks that block non-standard UDP traffic.