ALSO CALLED: Transmission Control Protocol and Transport Control Protocol DEFINITION: TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) is a set of rules (protocol) used along with the Internet Protocol (IP) to send data in the form of message units between computers over the Internet.While IP takes care of handling the actual delivery of the data, TCP takes care of keeping
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TCP DEFINITION (continued): … track of the individual units of data (called packets) that a message is divided into for efficient routing through the Internet.
For example, when an HTML file is sent to you from a Web server, the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) program layer in that server divides the file into one or more packets, numbers the packets, and then forwards them individually to the IP program layer. Although each packet has the same destination IP address, it may get … TCP definition sponsored by SearchNetworking.com, powered by WhatIs.com an online computer dictionary
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