The Zen of Multiplexing

September 14, 2007 · Tools & Systems

I was always had an argue with network administrators. They use firewalls to block and monitor the traffic of an intranet and refuse to open any other port except 80 (of course) for any other service.

Ports in TCP and UDP exist for the sole reason for multiplexing many virtual channels on one physical medium. Those guys (and many others) seem to forget that and re-invent multiplexing techniques on higher layers, using web services for example (See Figure below).

Focus daniel-san, you already painted here, try the other part of the fence.

Zen on wikipedia