I would also read up on the OSI 7 layer model to get an understanding of networking concept and how it all bolts together.

Him Her point taken :-)

i have found this site very useful Port Forwarding Guides Listed by Manufacturer and Model - PortForward.com not only for automatically setting portforwarding on many routers for common apps but for many tutorials and general info on port forwarding and port info in general.


Ports listed by application. - PortForward.com is a list of what apps use what tcp and udp ports.


you can also look at grc.com and specifically at sheilds up util and select all service ports when you hover over any port it will reviell what is using the port and if it is open closed or stealth mode.

That's useful however it's important to recognise that this is the 'nice' element of ports. The tutorial I was looking for would refer to dynamically-assigned, ephemeral, dynamic-reassignment and translation as this would explain what's really happening...the ports these guides refer to are server-side i.e. open port 80 to get to a web server inside the firewall.

To really understand what's going on it's useful to know the client-side ports too

Originally Posted by Him Her

That's useful however it's important to recognise that this is the 'nice' element of ports. The tutorial I was looking for would refer to dynamically-assigned, ephemeral, dynamic-reassignment and translation as this would explain what's really happening...the ports these guides refer to are server-side i.e. open port 80 to get to a web server inside the firewall.

To really understand what's going on it's useful to know the client-side ports too

At that point when you find the tut to explain what you have outlined 99.9% will not even read it and those that do many will not understand it and tbh how many will need too ? (me included)

most folk just need the basics, in Joooles words get his head around ports, as long as people realise there is a lot more then what you can learn in a few pdf's off the internet then its usually fine.

like a car most of us drive, we all know what a gearbox does and how to use it but how many people need to know all the details and all the specs ?

True - the specs aint the most scintillating of read so don't throw away your novels just yet

A previous poster mentioned the 7-layer model - a basic understanding of this will help you know where to start looking.

Going back to the OP, in the example all computers would connect to the same port on the server-side but not necessarily on the client-side. For most people this is not interesting as it's transparent. So, to answer the question, all 16 would have to connect to the same server-side port or it wouldn't work (TCP/UDP port assumed) - client-side port is irrelevant. QoS wouldn't help because it's service-oriented i.e. you can limit bandwidth based on type of service but not by computer. Bandwidth can be limited by MAC address, say, and that's at the Link Layer.

Even using a gearbox you have to be able to recognise some stuff - like the gear knob!