a_fancy_kiwi@lemmy.worldtoExplain Like I'm Five@lemmy.world•ELI5: In computer networking, what is a port?English
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1 year agoImagine you need to go see your doctor. They work in a building with 65535 rooms. Some rooms are empty. Some rooms have people in them that provide different services. But you need your doctor so you look up their location.
You learn the building address (IP address) and the room number (port)
In practice, you attach services to specific ports so that other computers can access those services. Typically, http traffic is on port 80 and https is on port 443. So if you visit a website, you are likely connected to a server on one of those two ports. But it’s not a requirement. You could create a website and put it on port 2097, or 532, or 47210; it doesn’t matter.
It refuses to answer that question for me lol