Devices and ports

  • Article

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

Devices and ports

A server running Routing and Remote Access views the installed networking equipment as a series of devices and ports.

  • A device represents hardware or software that can create physical or logical point-to-point connections.

  • A port is a communication channel that can support a single point-to-point connection.

Device

A device is the hardware or software that provides ports that remote access connections can use to establish point-to-point connections. Devices are physical, such as a modem, or virtual, such as virtual private network (VPN) protocols. Devices can support a single port, such as a modem, or multiple ports, such as modem bank hardware that can terminate 64 different incoming analog phone calls. Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) and Layer Two Tunneling Protocol (L2TP) are examples of virtual multiport devices. Each of these tunneling protocols supports multiple VPN connections.

To see the installed devices, you can view the properties of Ports in Routing and Remote Access.

Port

A port is a channel of a device that can support a single point-to-point connection. For single-port devices such as modems, the device and the port are indistinguishable. For multiport devices, the port is the subdivision of the device over which a separate point-to-point connection is possible. For example, Primary Rate Interface (PRI) ISDN adapters support two separate channels called B channels. The ISDN adapter is a device. Each B channel is a port because a separate point-to-point connection can occur over each B channel.

You can view the dial-up ports by clicking Ports in Routing and Remote Access.

Notes

  • To perform this procedure, you must be a member of the Administrators group. As a security best practice, consider using the Run As command rather than logging on with administrative credentials. If you have logged on with administrative credentials, you can also open Routing and Remote Access by clicking Start, clicking Control Panel, double-clicking Administrative Tools, and then double-clicking Routing and Remote Access. For more information, see Default local groups, Default groups, and Using Run as.

  • On Windows Server 2003, Web Edition, and Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition, you can create up to 1,000 Point-to-Point Tunneling protocol (PPTP) ports, and you can create up to 1,000 Layer Two Tunneling protocol (L2TP) ports. However, Windows Server 2003, Web Edition, can accept only one virtual private network (VPN) connection at a time. Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition, can accept up to 1,000 concurrent VPN connections. If 1,000 VPN clients are connected, further connection attempts are denied until the number of connections falls below 1,000.