TCP/IP

TCB = T = TechRef

TCP/IP /T'C-P I'P/ n.

1. [Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol] The wide-area-networking protocol that makes the Internet work, and the only one most hackers can speak the name of without laughing or retching. Unlike such allegedly `standard' competitors such as X.25, DECnet, and the ISO 7-layer stack, TCP/IP evolved primarily by actually being used, rather than being handed down from on high by a vendor or a heavily-politicized standards committee. Consequently, it (a) works, (b) actually promotes cheap cross-platform connectivity, and (c) annoys the hell out of corporate and governmental empire-builders everywhere. Hackers value all three of these properties. See creationism. 2. [Amateur Packet Radio] Formerly expanded as "The Crap Phil Is Pushing". The reference is to Phil Karn, KA9Q, and the context was an ongoing technical/political war between the majority of sites still running AX.25 and the TCP/IP relays. TCP/IP won.

--Jargon File, autonoded by rescdsk.

Although the name implies that TCP/IP consists of only the Transmission Control Protocol and the Internet Protocol, TCP/IP contains many different protocols that all work together to make TCP/IP networks function.

Examples of non-application protocols (see OSI 7 Layer Model):

ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol)
UDP (User Datagram Protocol)
ARP (Address Resolution Protocol)
IGMP (Internet Group Management Protocol)

And the Application Layer protocols we all know and love:

HTTP (Hypertext transfer Protocol)
SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol)
FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
TFTP (Trivial File Transfer Protocol)
SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)
Telnet
NNTP (Network News Transfer Protocol)

Those including TCP and IP form the 13 principle protocols in the TCP/IP suite.