 TCP/IP

What is TCP/IP? TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is the basic

communication language or protocol of the Internet. It can also be used as a communications protocol
in a private network (either an intranet or an extranet). When you are set up with direct access to the
Internet, your computer is provided with a copy of the TCP/IP program just as every other computer
that you may send messages to or get information from also has a copy of TCP/IP.

TCP/IP is a two-layer program. The higher layer, Transmission Control Protocol, manages the
assembling of a message or file into smaller packets that are transmitted over the Internet and received
by a TCP layer that reassembles the packets into the original message. The lower layer, Internet
Protocol, handles the address part of each packet so that it gets to the right destination. Each gateway
computer on the network checks this address to see where to forward the message. Even though some
packets from the same message are routed differently than others, they'll be reassembled at the
destination.

TCP/IP uses the client/server model of communication in which a computer user (a client) requests
and is provided a service (such as sending a Web page) by another computer (a server) in the network.
TCP/IP communication is primarily point-to-point, meaning each communication is from one point (or
host computer) in the network to another point or host computer. TCP/IP and the higher-level
applications that use it are collectively said to be "stateless" because each client request is considered a
new request unrelated to any previous one (unlike ordinary phone conversations that require a
dedicated connection for the call duration). Being stateless frees network paths so that everyone can
use them continuously. (Note that the TCP layer itself is not stateless as far as any one message is
concerned. Its connection remains in place until all packets in a message have been received.)

Many Internet users are familiar with the even higher layer application protocols that use TCP/IP to
get to the Internet. These include the World Wide Web's Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), the File
Transfer Protocol (FTP), Telnet (Telnet) which lets you logon to remote computers, and the Simple
Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). These and other protocols are often packaged together with TCP/IP as
a "suite."

 UDP
The User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is one of the core members of the Internet Protocol Suite, the set
of network protocols used for the Internet. With UDP, computer applications can send messages, in
this case referred to as datagrams, to other hosts on an Internet Protocol (IP) network without
requiring prior communications to set up special transmission channels or data paths. The protocol was
designed by David P. Reed in 1980 and formally defined in RFC 768.

UDP uses a simple transmission model without implicit hand-shaking dialogues for providing
reliability, ordering, or data integrity. Thus, UDP provides an unreliable service and datagrams may
arrive out of order, appear duplicated, or go missing without notice. UDP assumes that error checking
and correction is either not necessary or performed in the application, avoiding the overhead of such
processing at the network interface level. Time-sensitive applications often use UDP because dropping
packets is preferable to waiting for delayed packets, which may not be an option in a real-time system.
[1]
If error correction facilities are needed at the network interface level, an application may use the
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) or Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) which are
designed for this purpose.

UDP's stateless nature is also useful for servers answering small queries from huge numbers of clients.
Unlike TCP, UDP is compatible with packet broadcast (sending to all on local network) and
multicasting (send to all subscribers).Common network applications that use UDP include: the
Domain Name System (DNS), streaming media applications such as IPTV, Voice over IP (VoIP),
Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) and many online games.

 SMTP
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is an Internet standard for electronic mail (e-mail)
transmission across Internet Protocol (IP) networks. SMTP was first defined by RFC 821 (STD 10)
(1982),[1] and last updated by RFC 5321 (2008)[2] which includes the extended SMTP (ESMTP)
additions, and is the protocol in widespread use today. SMTP is specified for outgoing mail transport
and uses TCP port 25. The protocol for new submissions is effectively the same as SMTP, but it uses
port 587 instead.

While electronic mail servers and other mail transfer agents use SMTP to send and receive mail
messages, user-level client mail applications typically use only SMTP for sending messages to a mail
server for relaying. For receiving messages, client applications usually use either the Post Office
Protocol (POP) or the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) or a proprietary system (such as
Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes/Domino) to access their mail box accounts on a mail server.

 FTP

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a standard network protocol used to copy a file from one host to
another over a TCP/IP-based network, such as the Internet. FTP is built on a client-server architecture
and utilizes separate control and data connections between the client and server.[1] FTP users may
authenticate themselves using a clear-text sign-in protocol but can connect anonymously if the server
is configured to allow it.

The first FTP client applications were interactive command-line tools, implementing standard
commands and syntax. Graphical user interface clients have since been developed for many of the
popular desktop operating systems in use today.
  HTTP

The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is a networking protocol for distributed, collaborative,
hypermedia information systems.[1] HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World
Wide Web.

The standards development of HTTP has been coordinated by the Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF) and the World Wide Web Consortium, culminating in the publication of a series of Requests
for Comments (RFCs), most notably RFC 2616 (June 1999), which defines HTTP/1.1, the version of
HTTP in common use.

HTTP functions as a request-response protocol in the client-server computing model. In HTTP, a web
browser, for example, acts as a client, while an application running on a computer hosting a web site
functions as a server. The client submits an HTTP request message to the server. The server, which
stores content, or provides resources, such as HTML files and images, or generates such content as
required, or performs other functions on behalf of the client, returns a response message to the client.
A response contains completion status information about the request and may contain any content
requested by the client in its message body.

A client is often referred to as a user agent (UA). A web crawler (spider) is another example of a
common type of client or user agent.

The HTTP protocol is designed to permit intermediate network elements to improve or enable
communications between clients and servers. High-traffic websites often benefit from web cache
servers that deliver content on behalf of the original, so-called origin server to improve response time.
HTTP proxy servers at network boundaries facilitate communication when clients without a globally
routable address are located in private networks by relaying the requests and responses between clients
and servers.