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Can someone demystify computer Ports for me? Please? Blocking, unblocking, opening, allowing, VPNs and their effect, what ports are and what they do, step by step, when you have to interact with them? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 7 months ago by Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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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.

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[–] dan@upvote.au 13 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

I love your analogy for ports, but I'm not sure about the VPN one.

If you imagine network traffic as mail going through the postal system, then a VPN is like a private mail tunnel between two locations, that nobody else can enter or look into. Mail sent via the tunnel is private and nobody else can read it. The person at the other end of the tunnel can either open the mail themselves (ie a VPN from your laptop to your home server to access it when you're away), or forward the mail somewhere else (ie if you're routing Internet-bound traffic through it) and nobody will know it came from you originally.

[–] my_hat_stinks@programming.dev 8 points 7 months ago (3 children)

I'm not sure that's a completely accurate analogy either. When you're using a VPN people can still see that you are sending traffic through your tunnel, they just can't tell what it is that you're sending. It's like looking through frosted glass; there's definitely something moving in there but you can't tell what.

I suppose the best way to describe it is you send a locked box to a trusted friend; everyone handling it can see the box but can't tell what's inside. Inside the box is a letter, your friend posts it so it looks like it came from them. Your friend then gets a reply, puts it in a locked box, and send it back to you. Nobody between you and your friend can snoop on your mail but anyone between your friend and the final destination can.

[–] _dev_null@lemmy.zxcvn.xyz 3 points 7 months ago

locked box

As soon as I read this I read the rest of your comment in Al Gore's voice, ca 2k SNL, lol.

[–] londos@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

Yeah, but if you're communicating with the buttplug store, the specific contents of the box don't really matter. You still want a trusted friend to not tell people where you get your boxes from.

[–] dan@upvote.au 2 points 7 months ago

Great point. Analogies are hard :)