what is port number, in computer network terms
In: 3
There are usually a number of different program running on a computer that communicate over the network. If one such program sends out a message and a reply comes back the computer needs to figure out which program to give the message to.
One way to do this is to use ports. These are usually assigned to specific protocols.
For example port 80 is the default port for http and port 443 the default port for https. This is the port you sen request to on webservers when you want them to show you a website.
Most of the times you need not worry about these things as the various program running on all the computers involved will take care of it.
Fun Fact:
Port 666 was used by the original DOOM game and appears in lists of TCP & UDP ports to this day.
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