The OSI Reference Model
No real world network operating systems conform exactly to the OSI model, but it is useful as a reference when describing existing systems. It is difficult to study network devices such as routers, switches, and gateways without using the model. More ...
A Simple Description of the IPv6 Header and Datagram
This article provides a simple description of the IPv6 header and datagram without a lot referring back to IPv4. More ...
Session Border Controllers - More Than Just a Voice Firewall
The migration from Time-Division Multiplexing to the more flexible IP based SIP networks brought an unexpected security challenge. Session Border Controllers focused primarily on SIP and H.323 session security. More ...
What's the Difference Between a Packet and a Frame?
When speaking of the data in a network, people often call everything a packet. A more proper generic term would be protocol data unit or PDU. The specific name for a PDU depends on at what layer the data unit is in the OSI model. More ...
Video Streaming Protocols
Video surveillance systems currently are undergoing a transition where more and more traditional analog solutions are being replaced by digital solutions. Here, some of the network protocols used in video streaming are described. More ...
IPv6 Address Auto Configuration
When an IPv6 device first connects to a network, it can configure its own IPv6 address. It does this using a mechanism called MAC-to-EU164. More ...
Basic TCP/IP Networking
In this article, I'm going to describe how a network works. I am NOT not going to load you down with details. Instead, I'm just going to describe what happens when you start your client computer. How it gets access to the network. More ...
NTP Server Systems - The Network Time Protocol
The Network Time Protocol (NTP) is utilized by NTP Server systems to distribute accurate time information to network time clients. The NTP protocol is widely used throughout the Internet to provide synchronization of computers and processes. This article discusses how NTP server systems utilize the Network Time Protocol to provide networks with an accurate reference of time. More ...
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) Explained
In the early days of TCP/IP each device on a network had stored on its hard disk a configuration file that an administrator used to manually assign a static IP address. Today a network administrator is no longer required to maintain an IP and MAC address configuration file a server. Every device on a network is automatically assigned a unique IP address by Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). More ...
IP version 6 (IPv6) Advantages and Implementation
The Internet has, to all intents and purposes, run out of public IP version 4 addresses. The solution to this issue is new IP version 6. This would require a parallel IPv6 based Internet to be running until all IPv4 connections have been converted. More ...
The OSI Application Layer
This layer provides the interface between applications and the Network Operating System (NOS). The Application layer provides network services and applications such as HTTP, FTP, TELNET and SMP. More ...
IPv6 Prefix Length Notation
In IPv4, the prefix (or network portion) of the address can be identified by a dotted-decimal netmask, commonly referred to as a subnet mask. IPv6 address prefixes can be represented much the same way that IPv4 address prefixes are written in CIDR notation. More ...
Remote Control Protocols
Remote control protocols like Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), Secure Shell (SSH), and Citrix Independent Computing Architecture (ICA), allow a system to access another system and transfer the user interface, keystrokes, and mouse movements between syatems as if you were actually sitting at the other syatem. More ...
Network Operating Systems
The purpose of a network is to permit users share resources located on other computers and to share peripheral devices such as printers. A network operating system (NOS) is specialized systems software designed to provide networking functionality. More ...
IGRP (Interior Gateway Routing Protocol)
IGRP (Interior Gateway Routing Protocol) is a routing protocol like RIP, however, it scales better than RIP because it uses a sophisticated metric based on bandwidth and delay, and has other advantages. More ...
