Mastering Python Networking - Second Edition

Network protocol suites

In the early days of computer networking, protocols were proprietary and closely controlled by the company who designed the connection method. If you were using Novell's IPX/SPX protocol in your hosts, you would not able to communicate with Apple's AppleTalk hosts and vice versa. These proprietary protocol suites generally have analogous layers to the OSI reference model and follow the client-server communication method. They generally work great in Local Area Networks (LAN) that are closed, without the need to communicate with the outside world. When traffic does need to move beyond the local LAN, typically, an internet working device, such as a router, is used to translate from one protocol to another. An example ...