mbharrin@sdcc13.ucsd.edu (eat life before it eats you) (10/18/90)
I've been trying to follow some of the discussions here on comp.sys.mac.comm but find that I don't know enough to understand most of them. Where can I go (books, magazines, etc.) to find out some of the terms that most people are using, such as TCP, IP, ethernet, UUCP, etc... ? Any help will be greatly appreciated. -Matt -- Matthew B. Harrington Internet: matt@ucsd.edu University of California at San Diego Bitnet: MATT@UCSD 9450 Gilman Dr. 926067 UUCP: ucsd!matt La Jolla, CA 92092-6067 Tel: (619) 457-9884
ml27192@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (10/20/90)
/* Written 5:58 pm Oct 17, 1990 by mbharrin@sdcc13.ucsd.edu in uxa.cso.uiuc.edu:comp.sys.mac.comm */ /* ---------- "where can I learn more?" ---------- */ I've been trying to follow some of the discussions here on comp.sys.mac.comm but find that I don't know enough to understand most of them. Where can I go (books, magazines, etc.) to find out some of the terms that most people are using, such as TCP, IP, ethernet, UUCP, etc... ? -------------- These are all networking terms. The favorite Mac magazine is MacUser, and it has a 'bridges' column that covers these things. TCP/IP: I forget what it stands for, but it's a big networking protocol amongst unix machines. This is opposed to AppleTalk, which is what the Macs use. NCSA Telnet requires TCP drivers that can accept TCP commands and work with the 'router' connecting the AppleTalk and TCP networks to translate. This is how you can use it to do ftp (and jus' plain old telnetting) with unix machines. Ethernet is a very fast network medium. Whereas TCP/IP and AppleTalk are _protocols_, enthernet describes the wires and such that they run on. Apple's version of AppleTalk designed for ethernet is called EtherTalk. Normally Macs are connected with the _much_ slower LocalTalk, but unix machines use ethernet. UUCP: Unix-to-unix copy. Try 'man uucp' to get information on it, but it is used for moving files between unix machines. 'ftp' is another (based on TCP). UUCP is old even for unix; I don't know why I would use it. I'm sure others will have comments about my comments... Mark Lanett ml27192@uxa.cs.uiuc.edu Flash: I just realized you don't mean what I think you mean by UUCP. So ignore my answer, and the one I can't provide because I don't know it...
gillies@m.cs.uiuc.edu (10/21/90)
To get highly technical information on ARPAnet networking, you could try looking at the ARPANET RFC's (Requests for Comments). They are stored on NIC computers (Network Information Centers) throughout the internet. To access a NIC, type "telnet sri-nic.arpa". (telnet 192.67.67.20). The best thing to do would be to use the ftp command to retrieve an index of the RFC's. There are over 1000 RFC's, but only about the last 100 of them are relevant. Recently, a "hitchhiker's guide to the internet" RFC was written -- this might be a good place to start learning. As for the exact terms you mentioned --- IP -- ARPA Internet Protocol (IP). Specifies the sequence of bytes in an arpanet packet (a packet is the smallest unit of transmission possible). The sequence contains things like source computer (32 bits), destination computer (32 bits), time to live (4 bits), number of bytes in packet (? bits), options (variable length), splitting / reconstruction information (for networks that dislike long packets), then data bytes... UDP -- ARPA User Datagram Protocol (UDP). An extended IP packet for request-response protocols, like the "Time" protocol (reads the time from a remote machine), the "Fortune" protocol (reads a fortune cookie from the remote machine), etc. A UDP packet is an IP packet with a source + destination port, and user-data. TCP -- ARPA Transmission Control Protocol. A "virtual circuit" protocol (simulates an RS232 connection). A TCP packet is an IP packet with extra data. TCP information such as checksum, "ACK"nowledgement numbers, "FIN"ished bit, "SYN"chronize bit, etc. The user data of a TCP packet contains a virtual stream index, and then a sequence of bytes that belong to that portion of the virtual stream. TCP is the type of protocol used for "rlogin", "telnet", "mail (SMTP)", and "ftp" protocols. Ethernet -- A type of computer network hardware patented by Xerox, where everyone transmits data on the same wire. A unique thing about ethernet is that each computer can begin talking at once, causing a "collision". When this happens, the computers do exactly what people do in their daily conversation -- they wait a random amount of time and then begin transmitting (talking) again. This solves the contention time (mostly). 10Mb/second Ethernet (where each computer interface can transmit/receive 10 million bits per second) is an industry (IEEE 802.3) standard. UUCP -- the UNIX to UNIX Copy Protocol (UUCP). An AT&T UNIX protocol that allows two machines, connected via phone lines, to copy files amongst themselves. UUCP transmissions are often queued until nighttime, when phone rates are cheaper. UUCP has spawned many new things, "UUCP mail", a mail protocol that allows a UUCP unix machine to send mail to any other machine that also speaks UUCP, "News" and "Notesfiles" (what you're reading now), and in general, "Usenet", the resulting conglomeration of thousands of UUCP Unix machines that all speak UUCP and are all interconnected by these periodic phone calls (some are connected by LANs or the Internet, not just by phone calls). I hope that most of this is correct. Good luck!
resnick@cogsci.uiuc.edu (Pete Resnick) (10/22/90)
gillies@m.cs.uiuc.edu writes: >To get highly technical information on ARPAnet networking, you could >try looking at the ARPANET RFC's (Requests for Comments). They are >stored on NIC computers (Network Information Centers) throughout the >internet. To access a NIC, type "telnet sri-nic.arpa". (telnet >192.67.67.20). >The best thing to do would be to use the ftp command to retrieve an >index of the RFC's. There are over 1000 RFC's, but only about the >last 100 of them are relevant. Recently, a "hitchhiker's guide to the >internet" RFC was written -- this might be a good place to start >learning. Blech! Ptew! Now I know that Mr Gillies, in his great and infinite wisdom, thinks that one should go right to the source. I must, however, recommend against his recommendation. RFC's are nice if you need really specific information and protocols specifications on a certain topic, they are really a pain to walk through as an introduction to this stuff. I would tend to avoid them. A book which I think has a really good introduction to networking and the like is Douglas Comer's *Internetworking with TCP/IP*. It will introduce you to all of the terms you asked about and will make you sound like you know just gobs when you are done with it. :-) Good luck. pr -- Pete Resnick (...so what is a mojo, and why would one be rising?) Graduate assistant - Philosophy Department, Gregory Hall, UIUC System manager - Cognitive Science Group, Beckman Institute, UIUC Internet/ARPAnet/EDUnet : resnick@cogsci.uiuc.edu BITNET (if no other way) : FREE0285@UIUCVMD