Protocols
Your computer “talks” through its network card, but, unfortunately, technology has not advanced to the point where it can speak English quite yet. Instead, your computer uses a more primitive language—a protocol with a much more limited vocabulary. This protocol is most likely TCP/IP.
Because of the huge success of the TCP/IP-based Internet, other protocols like AppleTalk, DEC-LAT, IPX/SPX, NetBEUI, and SNA are either niche or obsolete, but you should be aware of them: As much as vendors like to talk about this-or-that being obsolete, real people on real networks can be slow to change, and you just might see these on one job or another.
What’s the bottom line? Because you can think of these protocols as languages on a telephone, you ...
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