User Manual

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Appendix B. Ping and TCP/IP debugging tools
What is TCP/IP: TCP/IP is set of standards fi rst developed by ARPA
(USA DOD’s Advance Research Projects Agency) that defi ne how
information is routed over the Internet. And because of its internet
popularity, TCP/IP is the most popular protocol operating over
twisted pair cabling... and therefore is the most popular protocol
used by Ethernet (the standard for local area networking).
Why learn about TCP/IP: Once the RWC1000 has established that
your cables and network devices are working at the hardware level
your next step is to checkout the software level of your network.
Understanding the basics of TCP/IP and gaining a familiarity with
your operating system's built-in network debugging tools helps you
diagnose and troubleshoot network problems at the software level.
TCP/IP basics: TCP/IP has 4 layers: 1) The lowest layer is the
PHYSICAL layer that deals with cabling. 2) The next layer is the
INTERNET layer. This is the “IP” layer (internet protocol) and it
describes the assigning of an "ip" address to each data packet
that is transmitted (all data on the internet must have a destination
address associated with it and this is referred to as an "ip address").
The address can refer to a workstation on you local network or a
server on the internet thousands of miles away. 3) The next layer is
the TRANSPORT layer. Because data packets can travel through
networks and the Internet using many different routes, they will
not necessarily arrive in the same order as they were sent. There
needs to be a mechanism that reassembles the packets in the
proper sequence. This is the job of the “TCP” (transmission control
protocol) and it resides in this layer. 4) Layer 4, the highest layer
is the APPLICATION layer. This is where Ethernet and many other
software tools reside.
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