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Can someone demystify computer Ports for me? Please? Blocking, unblocking, opening, allowing, VPNs and their effect, what ports are and what they do, step by step, when you have to interact with them? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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It's the one thing when I'm configuring things that makes me wince because I know it will give me the business, and I know it shouldn't, but it does, every time. I have no real idea what I'm doing, what it is, how it works, so of course I'm blindly following instructions like a monkey at a typewriter.

Please guide me into enlightenment.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago (1 children)

To expand on that analogy... certain services need entry into the building and then from there, they get distributed throughout the building.

Water comes in on the water line.
Electricity comes in on the electric wire.
Internet may come in on coaxial or fiber.
Gas comes in on the natural gas pipeline.

Your computer has ports to deal with basic tasks. These are called "well known port numbers".

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/50-common-ports-you-should-know/

So while, in theory, you COULD get email in on a non-email port, that wouldn't be expected and would be like feeding water through a natural gas line.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Just reading that URL and I'm sorry (to the author of that article), but there's no way there are 50 ports "you should know". 443, 80, 22, and that's about it. Maybe whatever the SMPT port is just for interest's sake, but that's very rarely going to be important practical knowledge. And there are some ports outside the well-known port range that might be handy. Your VPN's port, your DB's port. But even then, you're not getting anywhere near 50.

[–] joshcodes 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Cyber security guy here: we care about 22 for SSH, 443 and 80 for Web traffic, 3389 for RDP and 21 for FTP. Everything else we google and we all have to google 21 and 3389 because we all forget them half the time anyway.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

People still use FTP? 😬

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Is there a better way to get stuff onto my 3DS without removing the SD card

[–] [email protected] -2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Now I wonder if I can send files to my 3ds from my vita via ftp

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

Just for shits and giggles I've sent pictures from my Switch to my Wii with ftp