Basics of Internet Protocol (IP)

The Internet Protocol (IP) is the main calculation protocol that allows for data communication over a network. Using this protocol, computers can provide “packages”, or data units, to other computers and devices based on unique IP addresses. It is the standard used by home and business computers, routers, browsers and all network software and is the foundation of the Internet protocol suite.

Defined protocols

In its basic form, a protocol is a set of rules that allows two computers to communicate with each other. It is a standard calculation that defines the syntax and rules for a connection through a network: how to detect the other computer, such as sending a message to it, how to format the message and so on.

Internet Protocol Addresses

The Internet protocol uses unique addresses, called simply the IP addresses in order to identify the two computers or devices on a network. There are two standards of IP addresses. The most common are IPv4 (IP version 4), which consists of four bytes, each represented by a value between 0 and 255 and value separated by a dot: 127.0.0.1, for example. More recent standards, IPv6, has also emerged; It is composed of 16 bytes, resulting in longer addresses and greater possibilities of variation. Each computer on the network is assigned an IP address, though often modem can change the IP addresses dynamically.

The suite of Internet protocols

The Internet protocol suite is a set of protocols used in combination for different network activities. The Internet protocol and transmission control protocol (TCP) are the two underlying protocols that all other protocols use, so the suite is commonly referred to as TCP / IP. While the Internet protocol handles each transmission of each data packet, TCP is like an overseer, organizing data into packets and send them to the IP and the flip side, reconstruction files sent by individual IP packets.

Layers of the Internet protocol suite

The Internet protocol suite is divided into four “layers” of communication: from the bottom up, there is the data link layer, the Internet (or network) layer, the transport layer and the application layer. Occasionally, the actual hardware in question is called a fifth lower layer, called the physical layer. Quite simply, the link layer connects the computer, the Internet layer allows the IP packet transfer through the connection, the transport layer uses TCP to organize packages and the application layer consists of protocols for specific types transfer.

Application level protocols

While the Internet Protocol is the foundation for network communications, many other protocols that can be recognized exist at the application layer on top. These include HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol, which lets users of sites required Web from remote server), FTP (File Transfer Protocol, which allows the rapid transfer of files over the web), and POP3 and SMTP (Post Office Protocol 3 and Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, two protocols for sending and receiving e-mail).