What is the difference between getPort() and getLocalPort() of the Socket class?

[Zaid181294]

Some may say that

getLocalPort()

returns the "Local Port" and

getPort()

returns the "remote Port" but what i find interesting yet ironically confusing is that how can be there two ports associated with the same Socket?

[Rabbit]

Because you connect to a port on the remote computer from a port on your computer. You connect to their port 80 from your port 8009 for example. Pretty much every web server uses port 80. If you have multiple websites loaded, they can't very well all use your port 80 as well. In fact, none of them use your port 80. It's reserved for if you want to run a web server yourself.

[Zaid181294]

But isn't a Socket like an end point between two communicating entities.for instance,

server--------------------|socket|-----------------client

So the question arises that how can we have two end-points in a connection.( I seriously can't grab this one!!!)

[r035198x]

Ports exist on computers not inside some socket object. A computer (whether client or server) always needs to be able to open a port in order for it to communicate with another computer.
The client computer and the server computer do not both have to open the same port number to be able to communicate. The client can use port X to communicate out but be connecting to port Y of the computer it is communicating with (if that computer is using port Y to communicate out).

[Rabbit]

Your chart is wrong. It's more like this

---------------------------socket-----------------------------
| local socket address    protocol     remote socket address |
| 10.1.87.251:8008          TCP        10.2.85.12:80         |
--------------------------------------------------------------
 
local socket----------------remote socket
 

Yes, a socket is an end-point for data transmission. But each computer creates their own socket.