Networking For Dummies, 11th Edition

Chapter 5

Dealing with TCP/IP

IN THIS CHAPTER

Getting a handle (or two) on the binary system

Digging into IP addresses

Finding out how subnetting works

Understanding private and public IP addresses

Looking at network address translation

Finding out how DHCP works

Understanding how DNS works

Transfer Control Protocol/Internet Protocol — TCP/IP — is the basic protocol by which computers on a network talk to each other. Without TCP/IP, networks wouldn’t work. In this chapter, I introduce you to the most important concepts of TCP/IP.

This chapter is far and away the most technical chapter in this book. It helps you examine the binary system, the details of how IP addresses are constructed, how subnetting works, and how two of the most important TCP/IP services — Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) and Domain Name System (DNS) — work. You don’t need to understand every detail in this chapter to set up a simple TCP/IP network. However, the more you understand the information in this chapter, the more TCP/IP will start to make sense. Be brave.

Understanding Binary

Before you can understand the details of how TCP/IP — in particular, IP — addressing works, you need to understand how the binary numbering system works because binary is the basis of IP addressing. If you already understand binary, please skip right over this section to the next main section, “Introducing IP Addresses ...