What is the difference between a port and a socket?

Question

This was a question raised by one of the software engineers in my organisation. I\'m interested in the broadest definition.

Answer 1

A socket consists of three things:

1. An IP address
2. A transport protocol
3. A port number

A port is a number between 1 and 65535 inclusive that signifies a logical gate in a device. Every connection between a client and server requires a unique socket.

For example:

• 1030 is a port.
• (10.1.1.2 , TCP , port 1030) is a socket.