diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 52dd4a2..7aead8d 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 ## xx.xx.x
 - Request queue processing now is limited to 100 requests at a time
 - Added 'setEventsToRQThreshold' method that sets the number of events after which all events will be sent to the RQ. Default value is set to 100.
+- Mitigated an issue where not providing a virtual port number (or providing a negative value) at the 'start' was causing SDK to assign a wrong port number.
 
 ## 22.09.1
 - Mitigated a problem that caused invalid pointer error if the database path was set wrong 
diff --git a/include/countly.hpp b/include/countly.hpp
index 5588b7d..9c95583 100644
--- a/include/countly.hpp
+++ b/include/countly.hpp
@@ -90,7 +90,7 @@ class Countly : public cly::CountlyDelegates {
 
   void setDeviceID(const std::string &value, bool same_user = false);
 
-  void start(const std::string &app_key, const std::string &host, int port = -1, bool start_thread = false);
+  void start(const std::string &app_key, const std::string &host, int port = 0, bool start_thread = false);
 
   void startOnCloud(const std::string &app_key);
 
diff --git a/src/countly.cpp b/src/countly.cpp
index fe1dc0d..bb2188f 100644
--- a/src/countly.cpp
+++ b/src/countly.cpp
@@ -390,6 +390,11 @@ void Countly::start(const std::string &app_key, const std::string &host, int por
   enable_automatic_session = start_thread;
   start_thread = true;
 
+  if (port < 0 || port > 65535) {
+    log(LogLevel::WARNING, "[Countly][start] Port number is out of valid boundaries. Setting it to 0.");
+    port = 0;
+  }
+
   configuration->port = port;
   configuration->appKey = app_key;
   configuration->serverUrl = host;
diff --git a/tests/config.cpp b/tests/config.cpp
index 2840ca5..8949dff 100644
--- a/tests/config.cpp
+++ b/tests/config.cpp
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@ TEST_CASE("Validate setting configuration values") {
     ct.setMaxRequestQueueSize(10);
     ct.SetPath(TEST_DATABASE_NAME);
     ct.setMaxRQProcessingBatchSize(10);
-    ct.start("YOUR_APP_KEY", "https://try.count.ly", 443, false);
+    ct.start("YOUR_APP_KEY", "https://try.count.ly", -1, false);
 
     // Get configuration values using Countly getters
     const CountlyConfiguration config = ct.getConfiguration();