IPv4 Addressing

I briefly touched on IPv4 addresses in the TCP/IP suite. In summary IPv4 addresses are: Dot-separated. 32 bits long and represented in decimal. There are just over 4 billion available addresses. Therefore it is necessary to use subnetting to separate networks and duplicate IP addresses from one another. IPv4 structure and what it represents So we know IP addresses are 32 bits long and that they are separated into 4 decimal numbers by dot separation (this is known as dotted decimal), therefore each number must represent 8bits....

February 5, 2019 · 6 min · Ian Ames

TCP/IP Protocol Suite

TCP/IP is a set of protocols that form the backbone of the internet. As I described in the OSI model post, TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) provides reliable, ordered, and error-checked delivery of a stream of bytes between applications running on hosts. IP (Internet Protocol) is the protocol for shifting packets around between hosts in the network layer. The TCP/IP suite, however, contains a whole bunch of protocols beyond these two. (Fun fact: If to devices are communicating in a network with TCP/IP they are called network hosts....

February 1, 2019 · 7 min · Ian Ames

The OSI Model

The OSI model is designed to ensure compatibility of network devices (and their operating systems) regardless of manufacturer. OSI stands for Open Systems Interconnection and is defined by the International Standard Organisation (ISO). The model has seven layers: Application layer Presentation layer System layer Transport layer Network layer Data layer Physical layer Which can be remembered by either of two mnemonics: All People Seem To Need Data Processing or from the bottom up:...

January 29, 2019 · 9 min · Ian Ames

Data Communication Fundamentals

Concerns the basics of networking, starting with some common terminology of data transmission. This can be summarised as: A sender has some data they want to send to a receiver. That data needs to be converted into a message for sending. The message needs to be transmitted via some form of medium. The receiver needs to be able to turn that signal back into the data that has been sent....

January 28, 2019 · 3 min · Ian Ames

Network Fundamentals

Network fundamentals explores how computer networks are designed to enable the sharing of data taking into account three key requirements: Performance. The sharing of data and resources doesn’t degrade the computers on the network. Reliability. The network doesn’t fall over all the time. Security. Data is only shared with those that should have access to it. Types Peer to Peer is where every node on the network has equal access to the network and each node shares data and resources....

January 28, 2019 · 4 min · Ian Ames