How does punching a block several times open a portal
In the film and the series, there's a device with 39 shevrons. One is a unique point-of-origin address. This is a metallic brown object which the characters have nicknamed the Dial-Home Device, or DHD for short. So the idea is that I'm punching in an address into the DHD.
Another thing is that only the first click does anything. All subsequent clicks (or implications of clicking) are purely theatrical.