Connecting to the Internet today has become so easy and user-friendly that we tend to forget about the technical aspects of things like loading pages and downloading files. These operations still happen, even if the average user doesn’t care.
TCP/IP means constant communication between private computers and servers.
One such set of operations that is overlooked is TCP/IP. This frequently used but little understood set of operations stands for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. TCP/IP is the combination of the two and describes the set of protocols that allow hosts to connect to the Internet. In fact, TCP/IP is a combination of more than these two protocols, but the TCP and IP parts of TCP/IP are the main and only part of the acronym that describes the operations involved.
TCP/IP does not happen by chance. It is an active process; a set of constant communications between private computers and Internet servers. When a computer tries to log on to the Internet, that computer’s TCP/IP operations send a series of signals to Internet servers looking for a connection. In almost all cases, access is successful. Some exceptions would prevent access from being granted, but these exceptions are rare.
The two layers of TCP/IP are defined by separate versions in their entirety. The transmission control protocol is the top layer; one that converts messages or files into data packets that are transmitted over the network connection to the destination computer and then reassembled into messages or files that can be read by the destination user. The lower layer of TCP/IP, Internet Protocol, provides the transmission operation, configuring the connection address so that the information arrives at the correct place. IP could work without TCP even if it is down, but the reverse is not possible.
Despite the very obvious presence of the word Internet in the verbose version of TCP/IP, the protocol suite can also be used for internal use. Company intranets use TCP/IP protocols to set up a network within the company’s computer structure. External connections are not developed, but connections are made between the company’s servers and/or mainframes and individual computers. This type of connectivity mimics the TCP/IP connection functionality used for Internet connections.
