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TCP/IP Protocol
TCP/IP stands for "Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol. TCP/IP is the
most important of several protocols used on the internet. Some others are: HyperText
Transport Protocol (HTTP), File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
(SMTP), and Telnet, a protocol for logging into a remote computer.
Sockets provide a standard interface for a variety of network protocols. TCP/IP is,
by far, the most commonly used protocol for sockets. Here are the main features of
TCP/IP:
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IP is a routable protocol, which means that TCP/IP messages can be passed between
networks in a Wide Area Network (WAN) cluster.
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Each device using TCP/IP must have an IP address. This address is a 32 bit word,
organized into four 8-bit fields, called octets. Part of the IP address identifies
the network and the rest identifies a specific host on the network.
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IP addresses are organized into three classes. Each class has a different
allocation of octets to these two identifiers. This allows the internet to
define many networks, each containing up to 256 devices (mostly computers),
and a few networks, each containing many more devices.
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A single machine can run mulitple communictaions sessions using TCP/IP. That is,
you can run a web browser while using Telnet and FTP, simultaneously.
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