Internet port numbers

Jan 25, '01 01:07:57AM

Contributed by: robg

Although this isn't an OS X specific tip, if you do much with the built-in UNIX-based services in OS X (such as SSH, Apache, and FTP), it may be relevant. These services operate over ports, which are defined and managed by IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority). If you'd like to familiarize yourself with who they are and what they do, just visit their web site.

If you'd like to see a very exhaustive list of port assignments, IANA is the place to go. This list is the most exhaustive that I've ever seen. This can be useful for things such as establishing 'port forwarding' in a router, which will allow certain ports (such as 548, for Appletalk over TCP) to be sent through your router to one target machine (your Mac running OS 9 file sharing over TCP/IP).

If you are a "power user" in the Mac OS 9 world, and you want to delve into all the services that are offered with OS X, some knowledge of port numbers may be helpful as you start experimenting with Apache, SSH, FTP, Samba, etc. For the typical OS 9 convert, though, you won't have to know anything about them -- other than they're out there, and they help make some of the cool stuff in the new OS possible.

Comments (6)


Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20010125010757972