What role does TCP/IP play for Internet communications?
TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is the basic communication language or protocol of the Internet. It can also be used as a communications protocol in a private network (either an intranet or an extranet). When you are set up with direct access to the Internet, your computer is provided with a copy of the TCP/IP program just as every other computer that you may send messages to or get information from also has a copy of TCP/IP.
What role does IP play in data transfer over the Internet?
All data transfer between computers occurs in binary form, that is, as a sequence of 0's and 1's. The physical means of transfer may include copper or aluminum wires, optical fiber, or electromagnetic radiation (usually in the microwave range). In all cases, the 0's and 1's are coded to some physical signal. For example, if transmission occurs across a copper wire, the 0's and 1's represent voltage changes across the wire. Some predefined voltage threshold (for example, 2.5 volts for ethernet Cat5 cables) is considered a 1. Absence of that voltage is considered a 0. In the same way, presence of light of a certain wavelength, above a pre-specified intensity, in a fiber cable may be considered a 1, and its absence a 0.
How does Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) ease management of IP addresses on wired and wireless networks?
The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a service that does the above mentioned tasks for administrators, thereby saving simplifying the administration of IP addressing in TCP/IP based networks. TCP/IP configuration was basically a manual process before the DHCP protocol was introduced. One of the main disadvantages of manually assigning IP addresses to hundreds of computers is that it could result