Computers use protocols to define how they will exchange data with each other.
In computer networking, protocols are sets of rules which govern the way that computers identify each other and set up communication connections with each other. You can install multiple protocols on your computer, and when another computer attempts to establish a communication connection, your computer will check its list of installed protocols to see if it has a protocol that matches the computer trying to connect to it. You can change the order of protocols on your computer's protocol list, to put the most commonly used protocol at the top. This will speed up the network connection process.
NetBEUI
NetBEUI (NetBIOS Extended User Interface) is a simple protocol used to establish communications between computers on a single network cable, known as a segment. NetBEUI does not store routing information in the way that more complex protocols, such as TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) do, so it cannot communicate beyond its own segment. If multiple segments are connected to each other via an intermediary hardware device such as a router, the computers on one segment need to know which segments contain the computers that they wish to communicate with. This is known as routing information, and computers using protocols that contain routing information can communicate over large networks where multiple segments are connected to multiple routers. Because NetBEUI does not support routing information, computers using it find each other by "broadcasting" a message, asking to establish communication with a specific computer, that goes to all the computers on the same segment. This message is only acknowledged with the computer that has the requested computer name. Broadcasting data that goes to every computer on a network cable means that the cable can easily become congested with network traffic, and users notice this as being a slow response time when performing network tasks. NetBEUI is rarely used in modern networks, and from Windows XP onwards, it was not supported by Microsoft.
TCP/IP
TCP/IP is a fully routable protocol that can be used to establish communication between computers on remote network segments, connected by one or more intelligent hardware devices, such as a router. According to the Yale University website, the protocol was developed by the Department of Defense, and because each computer using it is uniquely identified by a numeric address, it can be used to create very large networks. The largest network of all, the Internet, uses TCP/IP as its communication protocol. Routers contain lists known as "Routing Tables," which allow them to forward data to the next segment needed to move the data from the source computer to the destination computer. The destination computer's numeric IP address, which accompanies the data being sent, allows the router to work out where the data should go next. In large and complex networks, where there might be many different routes to the destination computer, an arithmetic algorithm known as OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) can be configured so that the router sends the data using the route that will involve using the fewest number of segments. All computers on a network must have unique IP address numbers, and in large networks, administrators use a server known as a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server to automate the process of configuring IP addresses.
DHCP
DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) is a protocol used to automate the process of configuring unique IP addresses on network computers. The task of maintaining unique IP addresses on a large number of networked computers which may even be spread over multiple physical locations can be difficult to manage, and can restrict the number of computers on a network that can be reasonably supported. If each computer is configured manually, this can be a prohibitively time-consuming process, and there is a good chance that some computers will be configured with IP addresses already in use. When this happens, a network IP conflict occurs, and the second computer configured with an address already in use cannot access resources on the network. To prevent this, administrators install DHCP on a central computer known as a server, and they configure this DHCP server with a range of IP addresses. The TCP/IP protocol on each computer is configured to request an IP address when it starts up. The DHCP server receives the request and allocates an IP address to the requesting computer. When an IP address has been allocated, the DHCP server marks that address in its list of available IP addresses, so that it cannot be allocated to any other computer. This ensures that each computer on the network will have a unique IP address without administrators having to configure them manually.
Tags: each other, DHCP server, each computer, routing information, computer configured, destination computer