How Windows Networking Works

In this section, I'll discuss some of the technology behind Windows networking. You may be familiar with many of these terms, and if you are, you can skip ahead to later sections. However, if you're new to networking, our hope is that this section will make sense of some of the “alphabet soup” of acronyms you'll encounter while constructing and working with a network.

Networking Protocols

Network transport protocols define how data is arranged and sent in a coordinated fashion between computers. There are three transport protocols commonly used on Windows-based computers:

  • TCP/IP (Transport Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) forms the basis of the Internet, and is also used for Windows file and printer sharing. TCP/IP ...

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