Chapter Summary
TCP is a wonderfully feature-rich communications protocol. It needn't be so complex as to defy comprehension. Indeed, the way it operates is much like a normal conversation between two humans. This chapter shows you the key stages of a conversation as well as how people handle unusual situations that might pop up in the midst of a conversation. That analogy helps you more vividly appreciate how TCP works in a typical communications session.Chapter 9, "Best-Effort Delivery: It's Now or Never," shows you how UDP works.