TCP/IP

Definition: Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol: enables many different types of computers and operating systems to talk to each other. * Devised by US Department of Defense and incorporated into UNIX, formerly provided as separate utility to operating systems but now standard part of e.g. Mac OS and Windows. One big family Through TCP/IP the following can communicate: Mac OS, PCs with Windows or OS/2, IBM mainframe, DEC minicomputers, UNIX computers. A typical TCP/IP stack needs the following data to connect your computer to another e.g. for Internet access: IP address, subnet bit mask (tells TCP/IP whether the destination is on the network or not), default gateway/router (which server, if any, connects the network to the outside), DNS: IP address of the friend your computer wants to talk to.

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