How Computers Communicate

In order to fully understand packet analysis, you must understand exactly how computers communicate with each other. In this section, we’ll examine the basics of network protocols, the Open Systems Interconnections (OSI) model, network data frames, and the hardware that supports it all.

Protocols

Modern networks are made up of a variety of systems running on many different platforms. To aid this communication, we use a set of common languages called protocols. Common protocols include Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), Internet Protocol (IP), Address Resolution Protocol (ARP), and Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). A protocol stack is a logical grouping of protocols that work together.

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