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TCP/IP
TCP/IP uses 32 bits, or four numbers between 0 and 255, to address a computer.
TCP/IP is a large collection of different communication protocols.
Email is one of the most important uses of TCP/IP.
What is TCP/IP?
TCP/IP is the communication protocol for communication between computers on the Internet.
TCP/IP stands for Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol.
TCP/IP defines how electronic devices (like computers) should be connected to the Internet, and
how data should be transmitted between them.
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Inside TCP/IP
Inside the TCP/IP standard there are several protocols for handling data communication:
• TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) communication between applications
• UDP (User Datagram Protocol) simple communication between applications
• IP (Internet Protocol) communication between computers
• ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) for errors and statistics
• DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) for dynamic addressing
IP Routers
When an IP packet is sent from a computer, it arrives at an IP router.
The IP router is responsible for "routing" the packet to the correct destination, directly or via
another router.
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The path the packet will follow might be different from other packets of the same
communication. The router is responsible for the right addressing, depending on traffic volume,
errors in the network, or other parameters.
Connection-Less Analogy
Communicating via IP is like sending a long letter as a large number of small postcards, each
finding its own (often different) way to the receiver.
TCP/IP
TCP/IP is TCP and IP working together.
TCP takes care of the communication between your application software (i.e. your browser) and
your network software.
IP takes care of the communication with other computers.
TCP is responsible for breaking data down into IP packets before they are sent, and for
assembling the packets when they arrive.
IP is responsible for sending the packets to the correct destination.
IP Addresses
Each computer must have an IP address before it can connect to the Internet.
Each IP packet must have an address before it can be sent to another computer.
This is an IP address: 192.68.20.50
An IP Address Contains 4 Numbers.
Each computer must have a unique IP address.
This is your IP address: 117.98.53.230
TCP/IP uses four numbers to address a computer. The numbers are always between 0 and 255.
IP addresses are normally written as four numbers separated by a period, like this:192.168.1.50.
32 Bits = 4 Bytes
TCP/IP uses 32 bits addressing. One computer byte is 8 bits. So TCP/IP uses 4 computer bytes.
A computer byte can contain 256 different values:
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A Family of Protocols
TCP/IP is a large collection of different communication protocols based upon the two original
protocols TCP and IP.
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HTTP is used for sending requests from a web client (a browser) to a web server, returning web
content (web pages) from the server back to the client.
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You Don't
When you write an email, you don't use TCP/IP.
When you write an email, you use an email program like Lotus Notes, Microsoft Outlook or
Netscape Communicator.
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The IMAP protocol is used by email programs (like Microsoft Outlook) just like the POP
protocol.
The main difference between the IMAP protocol and the POP protocol is that the IMAP protocol
will not automatically download all your emails each time your email program connects to your
email server.
The IMAP protocol allows you to look through your email messages at the email server before
you download them. With IMAP you can choose to download your messages or just delete them.
This way IMAP is perfect if you need to connect to your email server from different locations,
but only want to download your messages when you are back in your office.
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