Chapter 13 - Understanding TCPIP

Chapter 13

After years of proprietary protocols vying for popularity, TCP/IP has emerged as the only protocol needed by many networks. Every modern computer supports TCP/IP, as do a growing number of other devices such as printers, network appliances, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and cell phones. Additionally, Novell NetWare, Microsoft Windows, and Apple's Mac OS have been using TCP/IP as their preferred network protocol for some time now. The only reason to use another protocol suite is to achieve compatibility with earlier systems.

Although the basics of setting up TCP/IP on a server are covered in Chapter 6, you need to know more to deal with even a slightly more complex network environment. This chapter covers some of the theory behind TCP/IP and the tools you use to handle IP addresses on your network.