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TCP/IP Port

What is it?

  • Port numbers are digits written after IP address separated by a colon.

  • TCP port is a 16-bit unsigned value.

  • There is finite no. of ports available 65,535.

  • Used for successful data packet transfer.

  • A socket, in which we connect to another system running some software takes place with a combination of an IP address and port number.

  • For instance, FTP application has 20 & 21 listening port.

  • Therefore, FTP server application when it starts will bind itself to TCP ports 20 and 21, and wait for connections in order to send and receive data.

A single host can host multiple instances in the same service by using a different port number.

Socket 

ftp://192.168.0.137: 21

IP Address

.

17

18

19

​

​

22

23

14

.

.

65535

For FTP, default port no. = 21

We can change the listening port.

Port no.

  • The port number identifies what type of port it is.

  • For example, port 80 is used for HTTP traffic.

  • Some ports have numbers that are assigned to them by the IANA.

Google Web Server

Listening port 80

  • You type google.com

  • You get the page.

  • Google web server is an HTTP server specifically listening to an incoming port number 80.

TCP/IP Port

  • So, we can set up no. of a web server that has one listening port on the default port 80.

  • And another website on the same server, same IP address but with listening on a different port (expect 80).

  • There are total 65535 TCP and UDP port numbers available.

Well-Known Ports.

Public Ports.

Port 0 to 1023 are Well-Known Ports.

eg. http, ftp, smtp,pop, imap, dhcp etc.

  • A host will bind a listen port number with an application, it will then use this port to listen for and accept connections from remote computers.

  • Note that once an application binds itself to a particular port, that port can not be used by any other application.

  • Most major applications have a specific port that they listen on and they register this information with an organization called IANA. 

  • This table has some Well-Known Ports (port no. 0 to 1023) of TCP specifies the port used by the server process as its contact port. 

Where & How to Use

  • Practically we use this port numbers in different fields such as:

  • Server application configurations like Oracle, Sharepoint, SQL Server, etc. requires to set up port number.

  • We use port number for troubleshooting purposes specifically, troubleshoot malware and identify a rogue process.

  • We can check which ports are being used by our PC with the command line.

  • Open Command Prompt > type netstat -a  > Enter.

Displays current TCP/IP network connections and statistics with the port number.

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Port

numbers

  • Download TCPView software, a Microsoft software will give graphical interface of connection status.

  • Here you can see all running application with a local address and remote address with their respective port used.

  • Those applications which are using UDP protocol to connect, they don't have a remote address and port number, because UDP is a connectionless protocol.

  • Here we can see the total no. of packets received and sent.

  • This software has many features which allow us to close the connection, WHOIS lookup and so on.

Port Number

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