Changing the interprocess communications ports in version 4

Category: How do I?
Date: 18 May 2009
Product: ANTS Profiler
Versions: 2.x,3.x,Memory Profiler 4.0

ANTS Profiler uses TCP port 8086 to set up a communications channel between the ANTS Profiler Service and the user interface, and TCP port 8084 to communicate between the application being profiled and the Profiler's user interface. Can these ports be changed?

ANTS Profiler creates a Windows Service called the 'ANTS Profiler Service', 'ANTS Profiler 3 Service' or 'ANTS Memory Profiler 4 Service'. This process is responsible for launching web applications hosted in IIS and COM+ server applications, and listens for connections from the ANTS Profiler user interface on TCP port 8086.

Changing the communications port for the ANTS Profiler Service
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*Note Well: if the installed operating system is a 64-bit edition, replace "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software"
with "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node"

For ANTS Proifler version 2, use the regedit utility to open the key called "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Red Gate/ANTS Profiler", then create a new string value called "Communications port". If the key does not exist, then you may create it. Set the value of this to the port you want to use, restart the ANTS Profiler service (in Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services), and try again. It should then use your new port.

In ANTS Profiler version 3 and Memory Profiler 4.0, there is an additional registry key called "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Red Gate/ANTS Profiler/3" that needs to have the Communications port value added as above. Both key values need to be set in order for the ANTS Profiler Service to use the specified port and for the user interface to open a connection to the service on the new port as well.

Changing the communications port for the ANTS Profiler user interface
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ANTS Profiler 3 allows you to configure the TCP port that is used to transfer profiling information from the process being profiled to ANTS Profiler when a snapshot is created. To do this, a string value called "UI Communications Port" should be created in the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Red Gate\ANTS Profiler\3, and the initial value should be the number of the TCP port that you would like to use for this communications channel.