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What actually is TCP/IP? Well its a protocol suite used for transportation of data. Although there are others such as IPX/SPX, TCP/IP is the most frequenctly used these days due to is connection orrientated and error checking features. TCP/IP stands for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. This is the common name for the suite of protocols developed by the U.S. DoD in the 1970s to support the construction of worldwide internetworks. Let us examine these two protocols:
IP: The Internet Proctocol is connectionless orientated and, as its major feature provides an addressing scheme. Connectionless orientated means that the packet is sent without any need for confirmation, so for example when you break into a building, you dont exactly wait to see if you have set off the alarm before escaping.
TCP: The Transmission Control Protocol is connection orrientated, and provides for error checking of data. A connection orientated protocol waits for confirmation before proceeding, so for example, if you buy a computer game over mail order, you send the money away and wait for the game, if the game doesnt arrive you proceed to abuse the manufacturer until you have your game. When creating networks, it is useful to know how the addressing scheme works and what subnets are. I would roughly guess that for the mass of you that are reading this, that have setup a LAN before, you would have been using windows, and would have gone into network setup, and in properties of TCP/IP would have set your IP to something like 192.168.0.6 and set the subnet to 255.255.255.0 like your mate told you to. Well this probably didnt make sense to you, and all you know is that the last number of 192.168.0.6 has to be diferent than everyone elses at the LAN. |