BusinessObjects Enterprise Administrator's Guide

Ports

Ports are logical connection points that a computer uses to send and receive packets. With TCP/IP, ports allow a client program to specify a particular server program on a computer in a network. High-level applications that use TCP/IP have ports with pre-assigned numbers. For instance, when you visit a typical HTTP site over the Web, you communicate with the web server on port 80, which is the pre-assigned port for HTTP communication.

Other application processes are given port numbers dynamically for each connection. When a service or daemon initially is started, it binds to its designated port number. When any client program wants to use that server, it must also request to bind to the designated port number. Valid port numbers range from 0 to 65536, but ports 0 to 1024 are reserved for use by certain privileged services.