[Ephemeral Port]

 

Ephemeral port is one virtual port concept, it includes the 4 parts {client_ip, client_port, server_ip, server_port}

 

So if server can provide 5000 port number for tcp connection, that means total sever can allow the maximumconnections was:

# of client * 5000

 

Below was referenced from: http://www.ncftp.com/ncftpd/doc/misc/ephemeral_ports.html


Ephemeral ports are temporary ports assigned by a machine's IP stack, and are  assigned from a designated range of ports for this purpose.  When the connection  terminates, the ephemeral port is available for reuse, although most IP stacks  won't reuse that port number until the entire pool of ephemeral ports have been  used.  So, if the client program reconnects, it will be assigned a different  ephemeral port number for its side of the new connection.

 

 

[Windows MaxUserPort]

 

Windows default provide the limition to be 5000 in windows 2003 and 15000 in windows 2003.

 

 

[Consideration]

Question #1:  Will I need always tuned the port range?

 

Answer #1:  Yes and except you know your client will be intranet connections. And each connection is short-around request and response so can finish very quickly.  And time_out setting you should also consideration.

 

For examples:

10000 client of intranet            Server port range is 5000

If each connection can be finished below 500 ms, so you won't need tuned the port range. Otherwise you need.