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Ports

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by oconnellf

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Why would you need to know about other ports when your network is set up??

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by quintar51

each port represents a 'door' leading into and out of your network. By only opening ports you need, you minimize the risk of being hacked.

A firewall blocks all ports by default, and then it's up to you to specify what you want to open. You need to know what ports need to be open, if you just open random ports, then the firewall is useless.

by oconnellf

Thank you for you reply it really helped me. It makes more sense than reading it from the book, as the book will sometimes give you to much information at once.

by alpha-male

In addition to knowing which ports to block to protect your network and stop unauthorized or annoyance traffic, with new software and hardware coming out all the time, it's important to know what ports are relevant so you can open them to allow required functionality.

You only really need to know the most important ones...then have a reference you can use to look up others as needed.

Take a look here:

http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~rakerman/port-table.html

http://www.networksorcery.com/enp/protocol/ip/ports00000.htm

http://www.iss.net/security_center/advice/Exploits/Ports/

Delete any spaces in the URLs.
Good luck...hope this helps.

by oconnellf

thanks so much for your answer, it really put it into more perspective for me. Im having so much trouble learning about the windows 2000 network and operating system. Sometimes its easy other times it takes my breath away.

by cg it

As the others pointed out, it's the door to get in to (or out of) the computer. When someone types in a URL [http:/ www.XXX.com] what they also are typing with having to is a port #. http default port is port 80.There are approx 1,000 "well known ports" and almost 65,000 total ports. That's a lot of doorways/paths into & out of your computer/network. Problems with connections to mail servers, FTP sites, internet access, can be simply a port assignment to a protocol or a blocked port. Knowing about port assignments helps in troubleshooting connectivity problems with telnet command.

by oconnellf

thanks so much for your reply, it really helped me with my understanding of ports, im studying windows 2000 network and operating systems essentials, and sometimes I get really bogged down with all the information.

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