Mastering Windows Server® 2008 Networking Foundations

Chapter 10. TCP/IP and IPv4 Networking Basics

When you create a connection from one machine to another machine, the two machines don't just magically know how to talk with each other. They require a set of rules to perform the communication, rules called protocols. The Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) combination defines the rules used to create a connection between two machines (TCP) and enables the two machines to exchange information in a particular way (IP). Don't worry if the idea of protocols seems confusing right now, the first section of the chapter provides you with a good definition and shows how they work. This chapter provides you with the details you need to understand how this communication occurs from an administrator perspective.

Windows hasn't always been TCP/IP-friendly, however. When Windows Server software first appeared, TCP/IP was a mildly scary, obscure, complex protocol used by just a few — those "oddballs" in research, education, and government who were attached to that large but then-stillprivate club called "the Internet." Some Windows Server users chose to use NetBEUI, Microsoft's proprietary networking protocol at the time. Others opted for IPX, the proprietary protocol offered by the then-market leader, Novell, for their NetWare software. Both NetBEUI and IPX are quite rare in networking now, because TCP/IP rules the roost.

Even if you don't know what TCP/IP is yet, you've been using it since Chapter 2. When we showed you how to ...