The purpose of the network layer is to help route messages between different local networks. Central to this layer is the concept of exclusive network addresses, where every terminal connected to the ...

The current IP address scheme of 32-bit words is fast becoming inadequate. It would appear that 2 32 = 4 294 967 296 combinations of addresses should be enough for everybody, but in practice this is ...

What is a network protocol? Most textbook writers state something like this: A network protocol is a set of guidelines or standards for the operation of network devices, the methods of operation, and ...

Getting started on designing a network is a task of formidable proportions, but all the more so if you are looking to build a secure IT network. Often, IT system administrators are not fully familiar ...

Networks function and flourish because they deliver reliable and fast communication over large distances. And while people often marvel at the speed, it's the reliability -- made possible through the ...

TCP wrappers are intended to provide wrapper daemons that can be installed without any changes to existing software. Most TCP/IP applications depend on the client/server model — i.e., when a client ...

In a previous article, we explained how you can use the sendfile() syscall to reduce the overhead of data transfer from a disk to a network. Now, we’re going to cover another aspect of network ...

The data transfer in a TCP/IP network is usually block-based. From a programmer’s point of view, sending data means issuing a series of “send data block” requests. On a system level, sending an ...