Netopia R910 Network Router User Manual


 
IP Setup and Network Address Translation 9-55
Associating port numbers with nodes
When an IP client such as a Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer, wants to establish a session
with an IP server such as a Web server, the client machine must know the IP address to use and the TCP
service port where the traffic is to be directed.
For example, a Web browser locates a Web server by using a combination of the IP address and TCP port that
the client machine has set up. Just as an IP address specifies a particular computer on a network, ports are
addresses that specify a particular service in a computer. There are many universally agreed-upon ports
assigned to various services. For example:
Web servers typically use port number 80
All FTP servers use port number 21
Telnet uses port number 23
SNMP uses port number 161
To help direct incoming IP traffic to the appropriate server, the Netopia R910 lets you associate these and other
port numbers with distinct IP addresses on your internal LAN using exported services. See “IP setup” on
page 9-56 for details.
Network Address Translation guideline
Observe the following guideline when using Network Address Translation.
The router can export only one local IP address per UDP/TCP port, so you can have just one machine available
for a given service, such as one FTP server. However, some services, such as Web servers (www-http servers),
allow you to change the UDP/TCP port on both the server and client. With two different UDP/TCP ports
exported, you can have Web servers on two different IP hosts.