Chapter 2
Layering TCP/IP Protocols
In This Chapter
Taking a quick look at some network hardware
Examining the TCP/IP layered approach
Watching packets munch through the TCP/IP layers
Discovering that TCP/IP consists of much more than just two protocols
Investigating the major protocols and services that make up TCP/IP
If you already read Chapter 1, you know that a protocol is the set of agreed-on practices, policies, and procedures used for communication. In this book, we look at TCP/IP as the protocol set for communication between two or more computers. Remember that TCP/IP is a large suite of components that work together. In this chapter, we first describe the layered TCP/IP organization and then the protocols themselves.
TCP/IP technology is designed to allow all parts of your network to work together, regardless of which suppliers you bought them from. To make your network parts cooperate, TCP/IP divides network functions (for example, sending data or connecting different computer hardware) into layers and defines how those layers should interact.
Taking a Timeout for Hardware
There’s no point in having software if you have no hardware on which to run it. Although TCP/IP protocols are software, we need to discuss network connection media and Ethernet — the most widely used local-area network (LAN) technology on the Internet. Talking about software without occasionally mentioning hardware is almost impossible, so we mention Ethernet in the following sections of this chapter ...
