# Port connection and receiving a message
**URL:** https://discourse.nodered.org/t/port-connection-and-receiving-a-message/4447
**Category:** General
**Created:** [31 October 2018 09:34 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/port-connection-and-receiving-a-message/4447 "2018-10-31T09:34:27Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Gina](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Gina)
#### Post date: [31 October 2018 09:34 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/port-connection-and-receiving-a-message/4447/1 "2018-10-31T09:34:27Z")
Hi,
I am new to Node-red so it'll be great if someone can advice on this.
I am connected to a device and i need to display the message on the sidebar after establishing a connection to the port of the device.
A simple flow is shown below. How can I proceed from there?
[{"id":"c97454e4.a67ca8","type":"tcp request","z":"e7892a8c.f647f8","server":"localhost","port":"9500","out":"time","splitc":"0","name":"","x":450,"y":120,"wires":[["1eae48a6.fa5c67"]]}]
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### Author:  [@ukmoose](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/ukmoose)
#### Post date: [31 October 2018 09:42 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/port-connection-and-receiving-a-message/4447/2 "2018-10-31T09:42:48Z")
Take a look at the debug node
There are also some great tutorials online that will introduce you to the fundamentals of Node-RED, such as [http://noderedguide.com](http://noderedguide.com)
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### Author:  [@TotallyInformation](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/TotallyInformation)
#### Post date: [1 November 2018 22:02 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/port-connection-and-receiving-a-message/4447/3 "2018-11-01T22:02:01Z")
> [@Gina](#):
>
> simple flow is shown below
Please also wrap your flows in back-ticks or triple back-ticks if you want people to be able to copy them. Thanks.