Hour 2. How TCP/IP Works

What You’ll Learn in This Hour:

• TCP/IP protocol system

• The OSI model

• Data packages

• How TCP/IP protocols interact

TCP/IP is a system (or suite) of protocols, and a protocol is a system of rules and procedures. For the most part, the hardware and software of the communicating computers carry out the rules of TCP/IP communications—the user does not have to get involved with the details. Still, a working knowledge of TCP/IP is essential if you want to navigate through the configuration and troubleshoot problems you’ll face with TCP/IP networks.

This hour describes the TCP/IP protocol system and shows how the components of TCP/IP work together to send and receive data across the network.

At the completion of this hour, you will be able to

• Describe the layers of the TCP/IP protocol system and the purpose of each layer

• Describe the layers of the OSI protocol model and explain how the OSI layers relate to TCP/IP

• Explain TCP/IP protocol headers and how data is enclosed with header information at each layer of the protocol stack

• Name the data package at each layer of the TCP/IP stack

• Discuss the TCP, UDP, and IP protocols and how they work together to provide TCP/IP functionality