What is a Port?

Every ip address is divided into ports. Ip Addresses are divided into ports, so that one ip address can be used by multiple programs to send and receive data at the same time. Ports make it possible for you to check your email and browse the web at the same time. This is possible because browsing the web uses port 80, and getting your email uses port 110.

You can think of a port as a path for data. When a program is using a port to send or receive data, think of the port as blocked. Meaning that no other program can use a port when it is already in use by a program. Well that is the short and long version of what ports are.