I don’t understand how a network card or even the software on a network card can make a virtual port and then make sure that traffic is processed alongside every other port. What are these ports actually and how do they work. literally not the same repeated stuff I find on every website when I search “what is a port” i’m looking for a much more in depth understanding.
In: Technology
Ports are a part of the TCP/IP protocol, and as such are part of the wrapper around a packet of data.
When a connection is open through a network interface, the client and host both assign a port for communication.
An automated server will have a designated port open with a program listening for TCP/IP requests for that come in; this delegates them to other open ports for the data transfer back and forth between client and server.
This is integral for the multiplexing feature of TCP/IP as it allows the software to keep track of multiple concurrent sessions.
By convention, many ports are reserved for servers to listen for certain types of requests, and they stay open by quickly shuffling the incoming connections to new ports.
Physically they’re the same as any other 1 or 0 being sent over the wire: an electrical high or low to signal on or off in a transistor. But it’s in a specific spot in the data packet so that we know to expect it and what to use it for.
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