Red Hat [Electronic resources] : The Complete Reference Enterprise Linux Fedora Edition؛ The Complete Reference نسخه متنی

TCP/IP Protocol Suite

The TCP/IP protocol suite actually consists of different protocols, each designed for a specific task in a TCP/IP network. The three basic protocols are the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), which handles receiving and sending out communications, the Internet Protocol (IP), which handles the actual transmissions, and the User Datagram Protocol (UDP), which also handles receiving and sending packets. The IP protocol, which is the base protocol that all others use, handles the actual transmissions, handling the packets of data with sender and receiver information in each. The TCP protocol is designed to work with cohesive messages or data. This protocol checks received packets and sorts them into their designated order, forming the original message. For data sent out, the TCP protocol breaks the data into separate packets, designating their order. The UDP protocol, meant to work on a much more raw level, also breaks down data into packets but does not check their order. The TCP/IP protocol is designed to provide stable and reliable connections that ensure that all data is received and reorganized into its original order. UDP, on the other hand, is designed to simply send as much data as possible, with no guarantee that packets will all be received or placed in the proper order. UDP is often used for transmitting very large amounts of data of the type that can survive the loss of a few packets-for example, temporary images, video, and banners displayed on the Internet.

Other protocols provide various network and user services. The Domain Name Service (DNS) provides address resolution. The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) provides file transmission, and the Network File System (NFS) provides access to remote file systems. Table 38-2 lists the different protocols in the TCP/IP protocol suite. These protocols make use of either the TCP or UDP protocol to send and receive packets, which, in turn, uses the IP protocol for actually transmitting the packets.

In a TCP/IP network, messages are broken into small components, called datagrams, which are then transmitted through various interlocking routes and delivered to their destination computers. Once received, the datagrams are reassembled into the original message. Datagrams themselves can be broken down into smaller packets. The packet is the physical message unit actually transmitted among networks. Sending messages as small components has proved to be far more reliable and faster than sending them as one large, bulky transmission. With small components, if one is lost or damaged, only that component must be resent, whereas if any part of a large transmission is corrupted or lost, the entire message has to be resent.

The configuration of a TCP/IP network on your Linux system is implemented using a set of network configuration files (Table 38-7 later in this chapter provides a complete listing). Many of these can be managed using administrative programs, such as redhat-config-network as well as third-party tools like Webmin, on your root user desktop (see Chapter 5). You can also use the more specialized programs, such as netstat, ifconfig, Ethereal, and route. Some configuration files are easy to modify yourself using a text editor.

TCP/IP networks are configured and managed with a set of utilities: ifconfig, route, and netstat. The ifconfig utility operates from your root user desktop and enables you to configure your network interfaces fully, adding new ones and modifying others. The ifconfig and route utilities are lower-level programs that require more specific knowledge of your network to use effectively. The netstat utility provides you with information about the status of your network connections. Ethereal is a network protocol analyzer that lets you capture packets as they are transmitted across your network, selecting those you want to check.