The TCP/IP Protocol Suite

Whole books have been written about TCP/IP, and justifiably so. Although most administrators don’t need to know every detail of programming a TCP connection or what to expect as a return value from a gethostbyname() call, they do need to understand enough to configure the protocol and make it work properly.

The important fact to remember about TCP/IP is that it isn’t a single entity. TCP/IP is short for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, but these are only two of the protocols included in the TCP/IP suite. There are a variety of other protocols, each with its own specialized area of importance and use.

Another important detail about TCP/IP is that it isn’t controlled by any one company or vendor, unlike ...

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