KB 221

What is TCP/IP?

Article:221
Created:2003-04-29 17:43:00
Categories:
  General Concepts

Question or Symptom

I've heard the term TCP/IP, what does it mean?

Resolution

TCP/IP is a language of networks. It stands for Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol. There are many network languages. TCP/IP is the one used on machines connected to the Internet. The way programs send and received data on the internet is via packets. A packet is one unit of information sent from one program to another. The IP part of TCP/IP is responsible for seeing that the packet goes to the correct place. The TCP part insures that the two programs have a sane and rational conversation using these packets. It is responsible for making sure all of the conversation has arrived, or asking for parts of it if they've gotten lost along the way. TCP also makes sure the program sees the conversation in the order it was intended.

All machines that access the internet must speak TCP/IP. They may speak other networking languages as well, such as AppleTalk (Macintoshes), NetBios(Windows), DECNET (Digital Equipment Corp), or Novell (another Windows network).