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[rumidutta085]

TCP/ IP protocol suite
The TCP/IP Guide - Table Of Contents TCP / IP Protocols: ICMP UDP FTP HTTP Reference Page
What is TCP/IP?

TCP/IP is the communication protocol for communication between computers connected to the Internet.

TCP/IP stands for Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol.

The standard defines how electronic devices (like computers) should be connected to the Internet, and how data should be transmitted between them.

Inside TCP/IP

Hiding inside the TCP/IP standard there are a number of protocols for handling data communication:

TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) communication between applications
UDP (User Datagram Protocol) simple communication between applications
IP (Internet Protocol) communication between computers
ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) for errors and statistics
DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) for dynamic addressing

You will learn more about these standards later in this tutorial.

TCP Uses a Fixed Connection

TCP is for communication between applications.

When an application wants to communicate with another application via TCP, it sends a communication request. This request must be sent to an exact address. After a "handshake" between the two applications, TCP will setup a "full-duplex" communication between the two applications.

The "full-duplex" communication will occupy the communication line between the two computers until it is closed by one of the two applications.

UDP is very similar to TCP, but is simpler and less reliable.

IP is Connection-Less

IP is for communication between computers.

IP is a "connection-less" communication protocol. It does not occupy the communication line between two communicating computers. This way IP reduces the need for network lines. Each line can be used for communication between many different computers at the same time.

With IP, messages (or other data) are broken up into small independent "packets" and sent between computers via the Internet.

IP is responsible for "routing" each packet to its destination.

IP Routers

When an IP packet is sent from a computer, it arrives at an IP router.

The IP router is responsible for "routing" the packet to its destination, directly or via another router.

The path the packet will follow might be different from other packets of the same communication. The router is responsible for the right addressing depending on traffic volume, errors in the network, or other parameters.

Connection-Less Analogy

Communicating via IP is like sending a long letter as a large number of small postcards, each finding its own (often different) way to the receiver.

TCP/IP

TCP/IP is TCP and IP working together.

TCP takes care of the communication between your application software (i.e. your browser) and your network software.

IP takes care of the communication with other computers.

TCP is responsible for breaking data down into IP packets before they are sent, and for assembling the packets when they arrive.

IP is responsible for sending the packets to the receiver.

TCP/IP uses 32 bits, or 4 numbers between 0 and 255 to address a computer.


IP Addresses

Each computer must have an IP address before it can connect to the Internet.

Each IP packet must have an address before it can be sent to another computer.

This is an IP address: 192.68.20.50.
This might be the same IP address: www.w3schools.com


You will learn more about IP addresses and IP names in the next chapter of this tutorial.


An IP Address Contains 4 Numbers.

This is your IP address: 91.140.162.18

TCP/IP uses 4 numbers to address a computer. Each computer must have a unique 4 number address.

The numbers are always between 0 and 255. Addresses are normally written as four numbers separated by a period like this: 192.168.1.50.


TCP/IP Protocols


TCP/IP is a large collection of different communication protocols.


A Family of Protocols

TCP/IP is a large collection of different communication protocols based upon the two original protocols TCP and IP.

TCP - Transmission Control Protocol

TCP is used for transmission of data from an application to the network.

TCP is responsible for breaking data down into IP packets before they are sent, and for assembling the packets when they arrive.

IP - Internet Protocol

IP takes care of the communication with other computers.

IP is responsible for the sending and receiving data packets over the Internet.

HTTP - Hyper Text Transfer Protocol

HTTP takes care of the communication between a web server and a web browser.

HTTP is used for sending requests from a web client (a browser) to a web server, returning web content (web pages) from the server back to the client.

HTTPS - Secure HTTP

HTTPS takes care of secure communication between a web server and a web browser.

HTTPS typically handles credit card transactions and other sensitive data.

SSL - Secure Sockets Layer

The SSL protocol is used for encryption of data for secure data transmission.

SMTP - Simple Mail Transfer Protocol

SMTP is used for transmission of e-mails.

MIME - Multi-purpose Internet Mail Extensions

The MIME protocol lets SMTP transmit multimedia files including voice, audio, and binary data across TCP/IP networks.

IMAP - Internet Message Access Protocol

IMAP is used for storing and retrieving e-mails.

POP - Post Office Protocol

POP is used for downloading e-mails from an e-mail server to a personal computer.

FTP - File Transfer Protocol

FTP takes care of transmission of files between computers.

NTP - Network Time Protocol

NTP is used to synchronize the time (the clock) between computers.

DHCP - Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol

DHCP is used for allocation of dynamic IP addresses to computers in a network.

SNMP - Simple Network Management Protocol

SNMP is used for administration of computer networks.

LDAP - Lightweight Directory Access Protocol

LDAP is used for collecting information about users and e-mail addresses from the internet.

ICMP - Internet Control Message Protocol

ICMP takes care of error handling in the network.

ARP - Address Resolution Protocol

ARP is used by IP to find the hardware address of a computer network card based on the IP address.

RARP - Reverse Address Resolution Protocol

RARP is used by IP to find the IP address based on the hardware address of a computer network card.

BOOTP - Boot Protocol

BOOTP is used for booting (starting) computers from the network.

PPTP - Point to Point Tunneling Protocol

PPTP is used for setting up a connection (tunnel) between private networks


TCP/IP Email


Email is one of the most important uses of TCP/IP.

When you write an email, you don't use TCP/IP.

When you write an email, you use an email program like Lotus Notes, Microsoft Outlook or Netscape Communicator.



Your Email Program Does

Your email program uses different TCP/IP protocols:

It sends your emails using SMTP
It can download your emails from an email server using POP
It can connect to an email server using IMAP



SMTP - Simple Mail Transfer Protocol

The SMTP protocol is used for the transmission of e-mails. SMTP takes care of sending your email to another computer.

Normally your email is sent to an email server (SMTP server), and then to another server or servers, and finally to its destination.

SMTP can only transmit pure text. It cannot transmit binary data like pictures, sounds or movies.

SMTP uses the MIME protocol to send binary data across TCP/IP networks. The MIME protocol converts binary data to pure text.

POP - Post Office Protocol

The POP protocol is used by email programs (like Microsoft Outlook) to retrieve emails from an email server.

If your email program uses POP, all your emails are downloaded to your email program (also called email client), each time it connects to your email server.

IMAP - Internet Message Access Protocol

The IMAP protocol is used by email programs (like Microsoft Outlook) just like the POP protocol.

The main difference between the IMAP protocol and the POP protocol is that the IMAP protocol will not automatically download all your emails each time your email program connects to your email server.

The IMAP protocol allows you to see through your email messages at the email server before you download them. With IMAP you can choose to download your messages or just delete them. This way IMAP is perfect if you need to connect to your email server from different locations, but only want to download your messages when you are back in your office.

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TCP/IP


Definition:

TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is the basic communication language or protocol of the Internet. It can also be used as a communications protocol in a private network (either an intranet or an extranet). When you are set up with direct access to the Internet, your computer is provided with a copy of the TCP/IP program just as every other computer that you may send messages to or get information from also has a copy of TCP/IP.

TCP/IP is a two-layer program. The higher layer, Transmission Control Protocol, manages the assembling of a message or file into smaller packets that are transmitted over the Internet and received by a TCP layer that reassembles the packets into the original message. The lower layer, Internet Protocol, handles the address part of each packet so that it gets to the right destination. Each gateway computer on the network checks this address to see where to forward the message. Even though some packets from the same message are routed differently than others, they'll be reassembled at the destination.

TCP/IP uses the client/server model of communication in which a computer user (a client) requests and is provided a service (such as sending a Web page) by another computer (a server) in the network. TCP/IP communication is primarily point-to-point, meaning each communication is from one point (or host computer) in the network to another point or host computer. TCP/IP and the higher-level applications that use it are collectively said to be "stateless" because each client request is considered a new request unrelated to any previous one (unlike ordinary phone conversations that require a dedicated connection for the call duration). Being stateless frees network paths so that everyone can use them continuously. (Note that the TCP layer itself is not stateless as far as any one message is concerned. Its connection remains in place until all packets in a message have been received.)

Many Internet users are familiar with the even higher layer application protocols that use TCP/IP to get to the Internet. These include the World Wide Web's Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), the File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Telnet (Telnet) which lets you logon to remote computers, and the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). These and other protocols are often packaged together with TCP/IP as a "suite."

Personal computer users with an analog phone modem connection to the Internet usually get to the Internet through the Serial Line Internet Protocol (SLIP) or the Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP). These protocols encapsulate the IP packets so that they can be sent over the dial-up phone connection to an access provider's modem.

Protocols related to TCP/IP include the User Datagram Protocol (UDP), which is used instead of TCP for special purposes. Other protocols are used by network host computers for exchanging router information. These include the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP), the Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP), the Exterior Gateway Protocol (EGP), and the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP).

[geetha410]

Hi Datta

Will you please Attach a Document becoz this post is very long
and Thank you very much for the post

[rumidutta085]

Hi,

Attaching the above notes in doc file.Thanx.

[ravendawson]

Hello,

First of all..thank you for the above notes. But I have a question with regards to TCP IP protocol .. How can I re-add the protocol tcp\ip setting without having to install fresh OS? Tried to install it via connection properties and when its says "HAVE DISK". But when I insert the xp cd, it didn't find the one it needs. Also tried to perform system restore as a friend's suggestion, but restoring froze at about 10%. I would install a new service pack but the pc almost handles win xp I don't want to make its life harder adding service packs.

Any other ideas besides these things I did?

[rohit badoni]

hi dear,
find the attachment
rohit badoni
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TCP/IP_model