What is the difference between a port and a socket?

What is the difference between a port and a socket?

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I am assuming you are referring to logical uses. A port is a logical connection method two end points communicate with. Ports operate at the Transport layer of the OSI. For example a VPN client connects to a VPN server over Port 1723. A socket is one end point of a connection. Sockets are a means of plugging the application layer in. Sockets are determined by an IP address and port number. For example, for a VPN client to connect the client would need to use the socket determined by the port number and IP of the local client.

This was first published in May 2003

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