What Is Computer Port?

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Input/Output (I/O) ports enable you to connect hardware devices such as keyboards, flash drives, mouse, printers and scanners to computer systems. It is the entry and exit point for data from the system, meaning that with the help of these ports, data is exchanged by connecting computers from different devices inside and outside the CPU.
Different ports give us the freedom to connect different types of devices to the computer because if you have only one port, you can select one device and use that device,

What is Computer Port?

A port is used to connect systems and devices together using a connecting cable, so that they can be communicated simultaneously. The various ports available in a computer system are usually located on the back of the system’s CPU cabinet or they can also be located on the front side of the CPU case. Some ports are available on the back of the system which are quite useful as you can only unplug the device that is not being used and plug another device into the port. Ports have different shapes and sizes that make it easy for the system to connect to the device, as you cannot plug another device into the wrong port. For example, you cannot plug a mouse into a printer port. For ease of identification of ports, they contain Symbol which specifically informs a particular device.

Types of Computer Ports?

As we know, we use various ports available in the computer to connect any device with the computer so that they can communicate together and do their work easily. There are 2 types of computer ports, as well as 2 types of computer ports :

  • Physical Port: We connect any device via cable using physical port, these mainly include serial port (DB9 socket), parallel port (DB 25 socket), and Ethernet port (RJ 45 socket) etc. , Various devices are physically connected by cable using special connectors.
  • Virtual Port: Virtual ports are mainly used in networking by which various software applications are allowed to access and use the hardware resources of the computer, FTP (File Transfer Protocol), PPTP (Point To point Tunneling Protocol, SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol), NTP (Network Time Protocol), HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol), SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), etc. are all examples of virtual ports.

Computer Input / Output Ports and Interfaces

The following ports are important in a computer:

  • Serial Port: This port is used in modems, older computer mouse and printers. (Although most printers are connected to a parallel port).
  • Parallel Port: This port is used in scanners and printers.
  • Universal Serial Bus: This port is used to connect peripheral devices such as external hard disk, mouse, keyboard, digital camera etc. It is of the following type: USB 1.0 Its data read and write speed is 183 kB/s which is quite low. Now let’s talk about USB 2.0 which has a speed of 480 MBps which is much higher speed than USB 1.0. And now let’s talk about USB 3.0 which is a completely new technology with a transfer speed of 5GBps which means 640MBps which is ultra fast.
  • PS / 2 Port: This port was used for the keyboard and mouse of the old computer.
  • VGA Port: This port is used to connect a computer monitor to the motherboard’s video card.
  • Power Connector: This port is used to connect a computer to a power cable.
  • Ethernet Port: This port is used to connect a computer to a LAN cable.
  • Game Port: This port is used to connect a computer to a gamepad or joystick.
  • 3.5mm Audio Port: This port is used to connect computers to microphones and speakers.
  • HDMI Port: This port is used to transmit video data, that is, we are using this port to connect a computer to a computer monitor, video projector or digital television.
  • Firewire Port: This port is used to connect camcorders and video devices to the computer.
  • DVI Port (Digital Visual Interface): This port is used to connect a High End Video Graphic Card to a flat panel LCD monitor.