this post was submitted on 28 Jun 2023

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Explain Like I'm Five

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ELI5: In computer networking, what is a port? (self.explainlikeimfive)

submitted 1 year ago by BackOnMyBS to c/explainlikeimfive

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I often see that network settings have a field for logical port. What is this field.referring to?

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago

Additionally to all the correct answers, a 'port' can also mean something completely different 'in networking'.

It can be a physical socket in a network equipment, like 'Ethernet port'. Or it can be a virtual equivalent of such, e.g. when connecting virtual machines on a host - that could be called a 'logical port'.

Those can sometimes be used interchangeably with 'interface' or 'device', but it depends on convention used in particular system or environment.