Basic Internet Technical Details

The Internet utilizes a set of networking protocols called TCP/IP. The applications
protocols that can be used with TCP/IP are described in a set of Internet
Engineering Task Force (IETF) RFCs (Request For Comment). These documents
describe the "standard" protocols and applications that have been developed to
support these protocols. Protocols provide a standard method for passing
messages. They define the message formats and how to handle error conditions.
Protocols are independent of vendor network hardware, this allows communication
between various networks with different hardware as long as they communicate
(understand) the same protocol. The following diagram provides a conceptual
layering diagram of the protocols.