Hey, Newby here! I've got this class in Networking and I've been assigned define a virtual computer port and explain how data can be directed to different ports. I am also supposed to list some common port addresses that are common and their use. (Not hardware ports) I've been doing searches for days (there is no info about this in the textbook)and I keep finding pages of stuff that either I don't understand or doesn't pertain. I'm not really stupid, just new at this. Can anyone help? Thanks!

Ok Im a newby to but i think i learned this somewhere. Two common ports are 80 for web pages and 21 for ftp, an uncommon port is 7777 for unreal tournament. Your web browser automatically goes to port 80. But you can specify the port # if you want. Like this http://192.168.1.1:8181. This port number is what I use for my relativly secret web site. But ports are generally used for specific protocals like http://, FTP://, or Unreal://. I dont know why they are called virtual, but I'll guess its because they are not in the physical world. To the computer world however, they are real places. Virtual ports! Just as real ports are not all used for the same thing (different sized boats with different cargos).....Not all virtual ports are used for the same thing either (web pages, file transfers, and of course Unreal Tournament :) Hope that helps, but you should wait for an expert to post!

Thanks for your reply, Robertsloca. Newby or not, it was very helpful. What you are saying is that a virtual port is a logical entity rather than a physical one, eh? Cool. I saw those port numbers (21 and 80) on a list somewhere, but I thought they were talking about hardware ports. Thanks for setting me straight. I don't think Robert is particularly crazy, but I'm guessing that an Unreal Tournament is some kind of r/p game? Good luck with that. And thanks again, we Newbies have to stick together.

You can really interchange the terms "virtual" and "logical". Currently, "virtual" is poor tech-speak for port forwarding and "logical" is the term for your regular TCP/IP ports. Note that ports being forwarded are just as logical as any other port, and thus the terms are not distinctive. TCP/IP ports do not exist any more than your web browser software exists. They are logical (or virtual) because they are not physical. They are used by the computer to make networking more simple for humans. Port numbers are a convention. Still, contemporary uses of "virtual" tend to mean ports which are forwarded to other ports. "I've been doing searches for days" You have been searching for days for a port list? Try again with Google. Common ports are 1024 and below. They are common because that is also a convention. Administratively priveleged programs (on Unix-like systems those with root authority) can bind themselves to these ports.

Thank you, anonproxy. The searches I was running were for "virtual port". Mostly, I found sites for software, or tech papers I apparently couldn't understand. I did actually find a list somewhere (I think it was Webopedia), but thought they were talking about hardware ports. My bad. Sometimes the hardest part of searches is figuring out what it all means. Thanks again for your help with that.