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EntityQ858321· pop 38· linked from 518 articles

Also known as TCP port, UDP port, network port, networking port, port number

communications endpoint in a computer's host operating system

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In computer networking, a port is a communication endpoint. At the software level within an operating system, a port is a logical construct that identifies a specific process or a type of network service. A port is uniquely identified by a number, the port number, associated with the combination of a transport protocol and the network IP address. Port numbers are 16-bit unsigned integers.

The most common transport protocols that use port numbers are the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the User Datagram Protocol (UDP). The port completes the destination and origination addresses of a message within a host to point to an operating system process.

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