diff --git a/man/3proxy.cfg.5 b/man/3proxy.cfg.5
index ca92de7..6f9c25a 100644
--- a/man/3proxy.cfg.5
+++ b/man/3proxy.cfg.5
@@ -878,7 +878,7 @@ with probability of 0.7) for outgoing web connections. Chains are only applied t
 .br
  type is one of:
 .br
-\fBextip\fR does not actually redirect the request; it sets the external address for this request to \fI<ip>\fR. It can be chained with another parent type. It's useful to set the external IP based on ACL or make it random. When built with \fBWITH_LOCAL_PORT_RANGE\fR on Linux 6.3 or newer, \fI<port>\fR may be an inclusive IPv4 local port range \fIFIRST-LAST\fR. The range is applied to outgoing sockets for requests matching this parent; DNS resolver traffic is not affected. For example, \fBparent 1000 extip 192.0.2.10 20000-30000\fR.
+\fBextip\fR does not actually redirect the request; it sets the external address for this request to \fI<ip>\fR. It can be chained with another parent type. It's useful to set the external IP based on ACL or make it random. Its \fI<port>\fR argument is optional and defaults to 0. When built with \fBWITH_LOCAL_PORT_RANGE\fR on Linux 6.3 or newer, \fI<port>\fR may be an inclusive IPv4 local port range \fIFIRST-LAST\fR. The range is applied to outgoing sockets for requests matching this parent; DNS resolver traffic is not affected. For example, \fBparent 1000 extip 192.0.2.10 20000-30000\fR.
 .br
  \fBtcp\fR simply redirect connection. TCP is always last in chain. This type of proxy is a simple TCP redirection, it does not support parent authentication.
 .br
diff --git a/src/conf.c b/src/conf.c
index d700d53..8ebd1b7 100644
--- a/src/conf.c
+++ b/src/conf.c
@@ -814,6 +814,11 @@ static int h_parent(int argc, unsigned char **argv){
 		free(chains);
 		return(4);
 	}
+	if(argc < 5 && chains->type != R_EXTIP) {
+		fprintf(stderr, "Chaining error: port is required for parent type %s\n", argv[2]);
+		free(chains);
+		return(3);
+	}
 #ifdef WITH_UN
 	if(!strncmp((char *)argv[3], "unix:", 5)){
 	    make_un(argv[3] + 5, (struct sockaddr_un*)&chains->addr);
@@ -838,7 +843,7 @@ static int h_parent(int argc, unsigned char **argv){
 		*cidr = '/';
 		chains->cidr = atoi(cidr + 1);
 	}
-	{
+	if(argc > 4) {
 		char *end;
 		unsigned long port;
 
@@ -1741,7 +1746,7 @@ struct commands commandhandlers[]={
 	{NULL, "system", h_system, 2, 2},
 	{NULL, "pidfile", h_pidfile, 2, 2},
 	{NULL, "monitor", h_monitor, 2, 2},
-	{NULL, "parent", h_parent, 5, 0},
+	{NULL, "parent", h_parent, 4, 0},
 	{NULL, "allow", h_ace, 1, 0},
 	{NULL, "deny", h_ace, 1, 0},
 	{NULL, "redirect", h_ace, 3, 0},