Re: Gs TCP/IP

[dempson@atlantis.actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

In article <kk59556@pro-haven.cts.com>,
Charles Claypoole <charlesc@pro-haven.cts.com> wrote:
> 
>         I would like to know, what does TCP/IP actually do?

TCP/IP is the term generally used for the set of protocols that are
used on the Internet.  They can also be used on private networks (e.g.
an Ethernet LAN).

A IIgs implementation of TCP/IP will allow a IIgs to be connected
directly to Internet (or another TCP/IP-based network), instead of
being limited to dialling up a host system which provides access to the
protocols.  This facility is already available on most other computer
platforms.

The most obvious use of a TCP/IP implementation will be to allow the
IIgs to run a graphical Web browser (this needs to be written, first).
At present, the IIgs is limited to running a text-based browser such as
Lynx, via a host system.

There are many other potential uses of TCP/IP.


Access to Internet (or other TCP/IP networks) can be made through a
permanent or dial-up serial connection, or a network connection
(LocalTalk).  The GS/TCP product will have drivers for supporting all
of these: permanent or dial-up serial via the SLIP protocol ("Serial
Line Internet Protocol", I think), and a LocalTalk connection via the
MacIP protocol (IP encapsulated in AppleTalk protocol packets) - a
Macintosh or other MacIP-to-TCP/IP gateway will be required to connect
to the actual TCP/IP network (or you could just run TCP/IP over
LocalTalk directly between machines running MacIP, such as two IIgses).

In the area of connection methods, there are only two major options
missing: PPP (Point to Point Protocol) is in more common use than SLIP
for dial-up connections, and is more flexible (but harder to
implement); the other missing option is a direct Ethernet connection,
which would allow the IIgs to talk TCP/IP directly.


Getting into specific details:

"IP" is "Internet Protocol", which is responsible for
delivering arbitrary chunks of data (up to about 1.5 KB each) from the
source machine to the destination machine over the Internet, without
worrying about details like re-sending it if the data is lost, or
maintaining the ordering of data.

"TCP" is "Transmission Control Protocol".  It makes use of IP to
provide a reliable, ordered stream of data delivery across the
network.

These protocols are not directly useful: the ones that sit on top of
them are.  You may be familiar with such concepts as E-Mail, FTP,
Telnet, Gopher, WWW, News, etc.  :-)

All of these are based around specific protocols that make use of TCP.
-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand