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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.

Related Terms

ARP (Address Resolution Protocol)
A protocol that maps IP addresses to physical MAC addresses on a local network segment.
VPN (Virtual Private Network)
A technology that creates an encrypted tunnel between your device and a remote server, securing internet traffic.
Reverse Proxy
A server that sits between clients and backend servers, forwarding client requests and returning server responses on their behalf.
Network Monitoring
The practice of continuously observing network infrastructure to detect failures, performance degradation, and security threats.
Multicast
A network communication method that sends data to multiple recipients simultaneously without duplicating packets for each recipient.
Network Topology
The physical or logical arrangement of nodes and connections in a computer network, such as star, mesh, ring, or bus configurations.
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