How Do Computers Talk to Each Other on the Internet?

TCP/IP is a set of communications protocols that allow computers to communicate on the Internet.

Its name refers to the two most important protocols in the suite -- the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the Internet Protocol (IP). TCP/IP specifies how devices connect to the Internet and how data transmits between those devices.

TCP/IP was originally developed by Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn, while under contract at the U.S. Department of Defense. It's the de facto standard way that local and wide networks communicate. It allows computers to connect to one another and for applications to send data back and forth.

There are four different abstraction layers within TCP/IP, and each one…
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