The number of available TCP ports is typically, but incorrectly, stated as 2^16 ports, but in practice, you can't use all of them.
That's mainly why I wrote “at most” instead of trying to compute the exact available number, yes.
You don't even theoretically need application-layer gateways to multiply the effective number of ports by a large factor for common loads, of course, as I mentioned; I just erroneously thought such technique was not in common use, per my reply to eggnet.
That's mainly why I wrote “at most” instead of trying to compute the exact available number, yes.
You don't even theoretically need application-layer gateways to multiply the effective number of ports by a large factor for common loads, of course, as I mentioned; I just erroneously thought such technique was not in common use, per my reply to eggnet.