There are a lots of different types of ports when talking about computers.
connection ports arent physical ports on a computer or any machine.
Instead, theyre virtual.
Pixabay
What Are Ports For?
When you go on a website, your rig reaches out to the server hosting it.
Ports are also valuable for security reasons.
What Is Port 443 For?
Have you ever seen the lock icon next to a URL in your browsers address bar?
In both instances, youve connected to a website using the secure HTTPS protocol instead of HTTP.
Mikroman6/Moment/Getty
HTTPS establishes anencrypted connection with a web server, rather than the unencrypted HTTP one.
Since HTTP and HTTPS are two different protocols, they use two different ports.
HTTP is available on port 80, and HTTPS is on port 443.
Why is Port 443 Important?
Encryption is necessary to protect information, as it makes its way between your setup and a web server.
Port 443 also enables websites to be available over both HTTP and HTTPS.
In the past, not every web web client supported HTTPS, meaning it wasnt universally accessible.
Now, though, most major browsers are moving to mark websites that dont offer HTTPS traffic as insecure.
Its available for Chrome, Firefox, and Opera.
Server administrators, however, need to take extra care to ensure their websites are available over port 443.
