Protocol, in computer network a set of rules or procedures for transmitting data between electronic devices, such as computers. In order for computers to exchange information, there must be a preexisting agreement as to how the information will be structured and how each side will send and receive it. Without a protocol, a transmitting computer, for example, could be sending its data in 8-bit packets while the receiving computer might expect the data in 16-bit packets. Protocols are established by international or industry wide organizations. Perhaps the most important computer protocol is OSI (Open Systems Interconnection), a set of guidelines for implementing networking communications between computers. Among the most important sets of Internet protocols are TCP/IP, HTTPS, SMTP, and DNS. Today in this blog we will discuss most common TCP/IP Protocols.
TCP:
The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is a transport protocol that is used on top of IP to ensure reliable transmission of packets. TCP includes mechanisms to solve many of the problems that arise from packet-based messaging, such as lost packets, out of order packets, duplicate packets, and corrupted packets. TCP allows data to be sent in individual segments of up to 1,500 bytes (including headers) in size. TCP is positioned at the transport layer (layer 4) of the OSI model. TCP is usually used in conjunction with the Internet Protocol (IP) and is commonly known as the TCP/IP protocol stack.
IP:
An Internet Protocol address that is also known as an IP address is a numerical label. It is assigned to each device that is connected to a computer network which uses the IP for communication. Its routing function allows internetworking and essentially establishes the Internet. Combination of IP with a TCP allows developing a virtual connection between a destination and a source. IP provides communication between hosts on different kinds of networks (i.e., different data-link implementations such as Ethenet and Token Ring). It is a connectionless, unreliable packet delivery service. Connectionless means that there is no handshaking, each packet is independent of any other packet. It is unreliable because there is no guarantee that a packet gets delivered; higher-level protocols must deal with that.
HTTP:
The Hypertext Transfer Protocol is a foundation of the World Wide Web. It is used for transferring webpages and other such resources from the HTTP server or web server to the web client or the HTTP client. Whenever you use a web browser like Google Chrome or Firefox, you are using a web client. It helps HTTP to transfer web pages that you request from the remote servers.
How does HTTP work?
As a request-response protocol, HTTP gives users a way to interact with web resources such as HTML files by transmitting hypertext messages between clients and servers. HTTP clients generally use Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connections to communicate with servers.
HTTP utilizes specific request methods in order to perform various tasks. All HTTP servers use the GET and HEAD methods, but not all support the rest of these request methods:
- GET requests a specific resource in its entirety
- HEAD requests a specific resource without the body content
- POST adds content, messages, or data to a new page under an existing web resource
- PUT directly modifies an existing web resource or creates a new URI if need be
- DELETE gets rid of a specified resource
- TRACE shows users any changes or additions made to a web resource
- OPTIONS shows users which HTTP methods are available for a specific URL
- CONNECT converts the request connection to a transparent TCP/IP tunnel
- PATCH partially modifies a web resource
SMTP:
SMTP stands for Simple mail transfer protocol. This protocol supports the e-mail is known as a simple mail transfer protocol. This protocol helps you to send the data to another e-mail address.
SMTP or Simple Mail Transfer Protocol is an application that is used to send, receive, and relay outgoing emails between senders and receivers. When an email is sent, it’s transferred over the internet from one server to another using SMTP. In simple terms, an SMTP email is just an email sent using the SMTP server.
If the SMTP server is used to send emails, then we can define SMTP relay as a process of transferring an email from one server to another. It is mainly used to deliver emails from one domain to another domain, which is different from the user’s domain. The SMTP relay service can be used to resolve a lot of issues such as email deliverability, IP blacklisting, and so on.
SNMP:
SNMP stands for Simple Network Management Protocol. It is a framework which is used for managing the devices on the internet by using the TCP/IP protocol. Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is a standard protocol used for the communication and management of network devices connected over an IP. With a set of standards, SNMP collects data from different hardware and software, organizes them, and aids in network fault detection and analysis.
DNS:
DNS stands for Domain Name System. An IP address that is used to identify the connection of a host to the internet uniquely. However, users prefer to use names instead of addresses for that DNS. The Domain Name System (DNS) is a central part of the internet, providing a way to match names (a website that you are looking for) to numbers (the address for the website). Anything connected to the internet – laptops, tablets, mobile phones, websites – has an Internet Protocol (IP) address made up of numbers.
TELNET:
TELNET stands for Terminal Network. It establishes the connection between the local and remote computer. It established connection in such a manner that you can simulate your local system at the remote system.
FTP:
FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. It is a mostly used standard protocol for transmitting the files from one machine to another.
