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Networking Beginner

What is Port?

A numbered endpoint (0-65535) that identifies specific processes or services on a networked computer for communication.

Ports allow multiple network services to run on a single IP address. Well-known ports (0-1023) include HTTP (80), HTTPS (443), SSH (22), FTP (21), SMTP (25), and DNS (53). Registered ports (1024-49151) are used by applications.

Firewalls control access by allowing or blocking specific ports. Port scanning (nmap) discovers open ports on a system. Running services on non-standard ports provides slight security through obscurity but is not a real security measure.

Related Terms

NAT (Network Address Translation)
A method of mapping private IP addresses to public IP addresses, allowing multiple devices to share a single public IP.
TCP vs UDP
Two transport layer protocols: TCP provides reliable, ordered delivery while UDP provides fast, connectionless delivery without guarantees.
Traceroute
A network diagnostic tool that shows the path packets take from source to destination, listing each hop along the way.
Network Segmentation
The practice of dividing a network into isolated segments to improve security, performance, and management.
WireGuard
A modern, lightweight VPN protocol that uses state-of-the-art cryptography and minimal code for fast, secure tunneling.
Token Bucket Algorithm
A rate limiting algorithm that allows burst traffic by accumulating tokens at a fixed rate and consuming them per request.
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