Creating a TCP/IP connection on already-networked computers

[John Salerno]

Dennis Lee Bieber wrote:

> 	The network protocols form a layered stack. The bottom of the stack
> is the physical connection: coax (now rare), twisted-pair (cat-5/cat-6
> cable with rectangular plugs on the end), fiber optic... etc. At some
> level above that is the part that translates data packets (containing IP
> or IPX or other addressing scheme) to a data packet with the
> MAC/hardware address of the destination connection -- both IP and IPX
> could be running over the same cable without conflicts. Above that is
> the part that handles, say, TCP or UDP -- this is the part that detects
> TCP missed packets from a connection. Somewhere above that layer is
> where things like FTP, SMTP, POP3, Telnet, HTTP, etc. live.

Geez, this network programming stuff is complicated, yet at the same 
time very interesting and, well, not all *that* complicated! I guess it 
helps to keep reading this stuff over and over, too. I just read the 
section on socket programming in Programming Python, which also 
discussed these layers and such.

I don't know why, but I find it all very interesting! I think one reason 
is because this is sort of a "coming together" of everything I've ever 
known/heard/read about the internet, but I never stopped to put it all 
together until now.