4. What is the port address in TCP?

[Jamastiene]

This was a question on a quiz I missed last week. Is there something wrong with me? I don't understand the question. Which port address is he asking for? There is no other information on this question. Any ideas?

[Omphaloskepsis]

1. The question confuses me too.

Maybe they wanted you to talk about ports.

Such as: In computing, a port is usually an interface through which data is sent and received. An exception is a software port (derived from transport), which is software that has been "transported" to another computer system. For example File Transfer Protocol usually uses port 21, and HTTP uses 80.


I dunno. The question could certainly be worded better.

[Jamastiene]

3. That's where I am leaning.

I know we are supposed to know some of the ports but the question is worded so I wonder if he wants a definition of what address ports are or if he wants some examples. I'm having a tough time this semester understanding the tests. They would be better tests and quizzes if I didn't have to try to remember all the information and try to cipher what he wants all at the same time.

Thanks for your answer. If he puts this same question on the test with similar or the same wording, which he has been known to do, I'll go with something like a definition and mention a couple of port addresses specifically like you did to see if that's enough for him. This has been one tough semester because of so many strangely worded questions.

[Omphaloskepsis]

5. Asking the teacher/professor is OK.

I always made my professors help with things I missed on a test during their office hours. Normally they were happy to explain what I was missing.

[DainBramaged]

2. Ports listen for communications from IP addresses

[Maineiac]

4. Correct, it depends on the traffice

http is 80. AOL uses 587 for SMTP and 143 for IMAP. POP uses 25, I think.

[Squatch]

6. Those are just defaults.

You can always specify ports and port forwarding for specific applications.