TCP/IP or Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol

TCP/IP is an acronym that stands for Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol. The terms refer to a set of protocols that regulate how data flows via a network.

Following the development of ARPANET, new computer networks began to join the network, prompting the need for an agreed-upon set of data-handling standards. Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf, two American computer scientists, in the year 1974 invented a new way of transmitting data packets in a digital envelope known as ‘Datagram’. Any computer can read the datagram’s address, but only the ultimate host system can open the envelope and read the message within.

This technology was dubbed the transmission-control protocol by Kahn and Cerf. TCP enabled computers to communicate in the same language, allowing the ARPANET to evolve into a global interconnected network of networks, an example of ‘internetworking’—written as the “internet” in short.

IP stands for Internet Protocol and when paired with TCP, aids in the routing of internet data. Every internet-connected device is assigned a unique IP address. The number, known as an IP address, can be used to find out the location of any internet-connected device.

Let’s begin with a question, So, what is the Internet? The answer must sound very easy however, most people won’t be able to answer it. The Internet is a global network of interconnected computer networks that communicate with each other over the Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP). It is a network of networks made up of private, public, academic, and government networks ranging from local to global in extent and connected by a diverse set of electronic, wireless, and optical networking technologies.

The Internet holds a huge range of information as well as services like Email, Voice-over IP, Television, Games, File Sharing, Shopping, etc.