It’s the one thing when I’m configuring things that makes me wince because I know it will give me the business, and I know it shouldn’t, but it does, every time. I have no real idea what I’m doing, what it is, how it works, so of course I’m blindly following instructions like a monkey at a typewriter.

Please guide me into enlightenment.

  • jordanlund@lemmy.world
    0·
    7 months ago

    To expand on that analogy… certain services need entry into the building and then from there, they get distributed throughout the building.

    Water comes in on the water line.
    Electricity comes in on the electric wire.
    Internet may come in on coaxial or fiber.
    Gas comes in on the natural gas pipeline.

    Your computer has ports to deal with basic tasks. These are called “well known port numbers”.

    https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/50-common-ports-you-should-know/

    So while, in theory, you COULD get email in on a non-email port, that wouldn’t be expected and would be like feeding water through a natural gas line.

    • Zagorath@aussie.zoneEnglish
      0·
      7 months ago

      Just reading that URL and I’m sorry (to the author of that article), but there’s no way there are 50 ports “you should know”. 443, 80, 22, and that’s about it. Maybe whatever the SMPT port is just for interest’s sake, but that’s very rarely going to be important practical knowledge. And there are some ports outside the well-known port range that might be handy. Your VPN’s port, your DB’s port. But even then, you’re not getting anywhere near 50.