By default, HoudiniEsq will bind itself to TCP Port 80, which is the standard HTTP/Web connection port. If this port is unavailable, you will be asked during installation if you would like to specify a different port to use, with a recommendation of port 8080. This article will cover how to change the port that HoudiniEsq accepts connections on in a few easy steps.

1. Navigate to the folder HoudiniEsq is installed in on the server machine. By default this is in “C:\Program Files (x86)\HoudiniEsq” on Windows 7/8/Vista OS, and “Applications/HoudinIEsq” on OSX.
2. Find the folder named “conf” and open the file “server.xml” within it. You can use any text editing program, though I recommend WordPad for Windows or TextEdit for OSX.
3. Find the following lines within the XML file, the text in red is the important part that we will be modifying: 
   

   <Connector port=”8080″ protocol=”HTTP/1.1″
   connectionTimeout=”20000″
   acceptCount=”100″
   maxKeepAliveRequests=”-1″
   maxThreads=”400″
   redirectPort=”8443″ />

These variables control various functions of HoudiniEsq’s connectivity. The variable we are concerned with is “Connector port=”8080″”. This governs which port HoudiniEsq allows user connections on; changing its value will change the port which you will use to connect to the server. Optional: You can also change the connectionTimeout variable to allow for a longer period before users are automatically logged out of the system.

4.  Edit the Connector port and save the file. Please note that ports 80 and 8080 are the standard accepted ports for HoudiniEsq. You can specify another port number, but do so at your own discretion.
5.  Restart the HoudiniEsq service. You can find instructions on how to do so here.
6. Update your bookmark to reflect the new address. Click on your current bookmark, and add a colon along with the new port number to the address after the host name portion, indicated by (host) here: “http://(host)/houdini/esq/”

For example, if you are running HoudiniEsq locally (usually the case for solos) with the example above the link will look like “http://localhost:8080/houdini/”.

If you get the blue login screen, then you have successfully changed the port. Save the new bookmark.

WARNING: DO NOT MODIFY ANY OTHER FILES IN SERVER.XML. This could cause your HoudiniEsq server to crash or render it unable to properly start.