Methods, systems, and media to reduce delays associated with port assignments are disclosed. More specifically, embodiments include hardware and/or software to delay binding of selected port numbers to instances of applications. Some embodiments identify port numbers for which applications generate multiple bind calls that may connect with unique remote ports. The port numbers are stored in a port list that is accessible to the protocol stack and memory is allocated for storing flags and additional port configuration data. When a bind call is associated with a port number bound to another application instance and the port number is included in the port list, the bind call may then be delayed until a connect is received from the corresponding application instance. When the resulting four tuple is unique for the computer system, the corresponding application instance is bound to the port number and connected with the remote port.