What are TCP ports and how do they work?

beginner

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Answer: TCP ports are 16-bit numbers (0-65535) that identify specific processes or services on a host. They enable multiple applications to use the network simultaneously.
Port categories:

Well-known ports (0-1023): Reserved for system services
Registered ports (1024-49151): Assigned to user applications
Dynamic/Private ports (49152-65535): Used for temporary connections
Common ports:
HTTP: 80
HTTPS: 443
SSH: 22
FTP: 21
DNS: 53
SMTP: 25

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