Networking Beginner

What is TCP vs UDP?

Two transport layer protocols: TCP provides reliable, ordered delivery while UDP provides fast, connectionless delivery without guarantees.

TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) establishes connections, guarantees delivery, maintains order, and handles congestion. It is used for web browsing, email, file transfer, and SSH where reliability matters.

UDP (User Datagram Protocol) is connectionless, lightweight, and fast but does not guarantee delivery or order. It is used for video streaming, gaming, DNS queries, and VoIP where speed matters more than perfect reliability.

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Related Terms

NAT (Network Address Translation)

A method of mapping private IP addresses to public IP addresses, allowing multiple devices to share a single public IP.

A set of rules that control inbound and outbound traffic at the subnet level, acting as a stateless firewall in cloud and enterprise networks.

A numbered endpoint (0-65535) that identifies specific processes or services on a networked computer for communication.

A compact method for specifying IP addresses and their associated routing prefix using a slash followed by the prefix length.

The time delay between sending a request and receiving a response, measured in milliseconds.

DNS (Domain Name System)

A hierarchical naming system that translates human-readable domain names into IP addresses.

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