The Interactive Glossary: Defining the Net
TCP/IP
TCP/IP stands for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, the language governing communications between all computers on the Internet. TCP/IP is a set of instructions that dictates how packets of information are sent across multiple networks. It also includes a built-in error-checking capability to ensure that data packets arrive at their final destination in the proper order.
IP, or Internet Protocol, is the specification that determines where packets are routed to, based on their destination address. TCP, or Transmission Control Protocol, makes sure that the packets arrive correctly at their destination address. If TCP determines that a packet was not received, it will try to resend the packet until it is received properly.
You must be running TCP/IP to have full Internet access. In UNIX, TCP/IP is a part of the operating system. In the Windows world, the functionality of TCP/IP is handled by WinSock. This piece of software takes care of your TCP/IP configuration information.
See: Protocol
