Basic Networking Concepts

• What is a network?
• What is a Protocol?
• Types of Networks
• Network Components
• An Educator's Guide to School Networks - Solving the Network Puzzle - excellent introductory overview of networking!
• Connected:An Internet Encyclopedia

• Ethernet
• ISDN
• ATM
• SMDS
• SNA
• The Interactive Network Design Manual - from Network Computing Online - comprehensive information on designing and troubleshooting networks
• The Telecommunications Library - the definitive source of information on terms and issues related to the technology and business of telecommunications

TCP/IP is short for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, and is the standard communications protocol required for Internet computers. To communicate using TCP/IP, PCs need a set of software components called a TCP/IP stack. Macintoshes typically use a proprietary software called MacTCP. Most UNIX systems are built with TCP/IP capabilities.

TCP/IP encompasses two standards. TCP and IP. On the Internet, nearly everyone uses the two standards together. that's why they are almost always discusses together. TCP and IP play different roles in getting two computers to talk. IP is the low-level method for moving information from one computer to another and TCP is the high-level method for expressing what information is and ensuring that the information is understandable.If you think of the Internet as a book, IP is pages and TCP is the language in which the book is written.

• What is TCP/IP?
• Introduction to TCP/IP
• A TCP/IP Tutorial
• What is an IP address?
• Understanding IP Addressing: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know - By Chuck Semeria - Excellent reference on all aspects of TCP/IP
• More IP Info
• IP Addressing/Subnet Addressing
• USENET FAQs - comp.protocols.tcp-ip
• Index - Well Known TCP/IP Ports - information about protocols and IP ports
• The IP Reference Library - a one stop web location for relevant material on IP
• Everything you always wanted to know about TCP/IP, but were afraid to ask...

A router translates information from one network to another. Routers select the best path to route a message, based on the destination address and origin. The router can direct traffic to prevent head-on collisions, and is smart enough to know when to direct traffic along back roads and shortcuts.

• Hot Tips - Popular tips and hints gathered from Cisco's Technical Assistance Center (TAC).
• CiscoWorld Articles
• The BGP Standard - The Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), defined in RFC 1771, provides loop-free interdomain routing between autonomous systems. (An autonomous system [AS] is a set of routers that operate under the same administration.) BGP is often run among the networks of Internet service providers (ISPs).
• The BGP Page
• IP Subnet Calculator

DNS (Domain Name Service) is the method by which Internet addresses (like "www.bergen.org") are converted into computer-readable IP Addresses (such as "168.229.3.2"). DNS is one of the most flexible and powerful technical features of the Internet, allowing computers to appear and dissapear from the Internet without causing problems. It also makes sending messages much easier because there does not have to be a central repository of names.

• How does Information Travel the Internet?
• The Internic
• DNS Resources Directory
• Setting up DNS - basics on setting up DNS

• Internet Performance Measurement and Analysis (IPMA) project, a joint effort of the University of Michigan and Merit Network. IPMA is a proposed NSF-sponsored research project. The IPMA project continues many of the routing statistics and Internet performance projects initiated under the Routing Arbiter project.
• The Internet Request For Comments (or RFC) documents are the written definitions of the protocols and policies of the Internet.
• Routing Arbiter - current statistics, tools, and ongoing research from the folks trying to keep the Internet from flying apart.
• The Domain Survey attempts to discover every host on the Internet by doing a complete search of the Domain Name System.
• Russ Haynal's ISP Page - excellent resource for ISP's!
• The Inet-Access Archives - mailing list archive - excellent resource for ISP's
• The Inet-Access Frequently Asked Questions List
• What is IPv6? - This module provides an overview of IPv6 (Internet Protocol, version 6), explaining that IPv6 is the next generation IP address scheme that has been agreed upon by the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force). The current IP addressing scheme (IPv4)is introduced, then compared with IPv6. The module explains that IPv6 is still in development and testing, and that the transition from IPv4 to IPv6 will take many years.
• Gore unveils 'Internet2' for universities
• Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
• Next Generation Internet (NGI) Initiative
• Internet Mapping Project

• comp.dcom.sys.cisco - Cisco Newsgroup
• comp.dcom.sys.wellfleet - Bay/Wellfleet Newsgroup
• comp.protocols.tcp-ip - TCP/IP Newsgroup
• comp.dcom.lans.misc - LAN newsgroup

Take the TCP/IP Test