Attaching the printer to the parallel port

The printer port or the parallel port as it’s usually called, is the one with 25 holes. You use it for connecting the printer cable (or Zip drive or scanner cable).

Connecting speakers, microphone and joystick

The ports at the bottom are for attaching the speaker connectors and microphone. These wires to the soundcard.

Normally, the soundcard has three small round ports (apart from a game port) to perform specific sound functions. The ports are usually marked as Line Out – To grab sound from the sound card, Line In – For external sound capture from an outside source, and Speakers Out - To connect speakers to the sound card for audio output

Most soundcards these days also have colour-coded ports so you cannot mistake them. Besides, the function of the port is written right next to it.

The game port, which is usually part of the soundcard, could be used to connect gaming peripherals like a ‘Joystick’.

Connecting monitor cable to display adaptor

The isolated port that looks like a narrower version of the parallel port and has three rows of pins, is where you connect the monitor’s cable. An indicator on the monitor cable should say which side is up, so you shouldn’t have any problems with this one either as the plug will only go in one way. This port is situated on the VGA card of the computer.

Universal Serial Bus

Best of all.The USB has changed the computers world. From webcams to mobile phones you can connect all peripherals with this bus.Simple to plug in.It can be used for any peripheral to be connected to a computer which has a USB port.