Finding a Port in the Storm

[nittanygreg]

I appreciate the feedback that I got earlier. However, I am very much a "newbie" in certain computer aspects. How do I choose a port on my computer? What's the criteria? How do you find the "right one?" I don't really know the functions of ports, or how they are delineated.

It would seem that with this information, I might be able to finally start going "live."

Any assistance will be greatly appreciated!

Greg

[Rinibin]

nittanygreg, I assume you're talking about shoutcast here (you may want to post in the shoutcast forum next time, probably better chances of having your problem solved. Or maybe someone can move this thread?). The port you are using for your broadcasts is 8000, unless you changed the standard port in the sc_conf file. Only criterium for being able to use a port is it shoudn't be in use by another program.
The function of ports: computers have tons of ports (thousands of them). They are mainly used to label data-packets. The computer listens for incoming data, identifies from which port it comes and then sends the data to the right application/process. For example, FTP-servers usually use port 21, so if you run an FTP-server and there is incoming data, the computer will check which port it comes from and if it comes from port 21, it will make sure it ends up with the FTP-server. Same goes for the Shoutcast-server. If you configure port 8000 to be used with it, any data that comes in there will automatically end up at the right place (being the server, of course). So far my high quality explanation of ports. Hehe... I hope this answered your questions. I had difficulties understading it myself after re-reading it. :)