This document is designed to give the reader a reasonable working
knowledge of TCP/IP subnetting, addressing, and routing. It is
not intended to be complete, or to cover all issues.
This is targeted toward LAN administrators just moving to TCP/IP,
however it should help anyone who wants to know a little (more) about
how TCP/IP works. This document does not, generally, apply to
dial-up SLIP/PPP connections.
The difference between this (a primer) and an FAQ, is that most
FAQ's, in practice, tend to be question-and-answer oriented, and
generally seem to try to cover ALL issues, not just the ones frequently
asked about. This primer is intended as a starting point for someone
who has an interest in the subject, but doesn't know where to
start or what questions to ask. This should also help to broaden
the understanding of people who have worked with TCP/IP for a
while, but either haven't had the time to study all the less-than-useful
theory behind the subject, or have been somewhat overwhelmed
by the many theoretical details and have missed the big picture.
This is maintained in HTML. I have made it available as
one large page
for the benefit of those who prefer to print off a copy and read it that way.
Also useful for sharing via hard copy. If you choose to print this out
and distribute this, I ask that you
distribute it in its entirety, and that you don't charge for it.
Feedback,
of course, is always greatly appreciated, and will help determine
the direction and growth of this living document. In fact, just a quick
email to say "thanks" (if it helped) will help motivate me to keep this
current and expanding :-)
