Book Description:
Your first step into the world of TCP/IP networking * No TCP/IP experience required * Learn TCP/IP basics with this reader-friendly guide * Use hands-on activities to reinforce concepts and understand TCP/IP * Employ real-world practices to understand the practical benefits of the TCP/IP suite With the commercialization of the Internet, TCP/IP has gone from a counter-culture protocol used in academia and government research facilities to mainstream — and Main Street — in less than 10 years. A vast number of people rely on the Internet and on TCP/IP to conduct their business, stay in touch with others, or just aimlessly explore cyberspace. The majority of those users do not understand, appreciate, or know what TCP/IP is, or even what it really does for them. This book will change that! This book explores TCP/IP in a reader-friendly manner that does not presume an existing base of knowledge. The reader is introduced to the concept of packetized data transfer, open networking, reference models, and standards bodies. This forms the context for introducing the architecture of the TCP/IP protocol suite. The TCP/IP protocol suite is then dissected so that the reader can appreciate its components, their functions, and their respective uses. Lastly, the book takes a look at some of the services that are either native to the TCP/IP protocol suite or enabled by it. These services are examined from the user's perspective, so they appreciate what tools they can use both implicitly and explicitly on a TCP/IP network.