A protocol can be defined as a standard set of rules to be followed by all computers wanting to talk to each other. Therefore, different types of computers running different types of operating systems can communicate easily. Protocols that use connectionless delivery place the data on the network and assume it will get through. These are more fast but unreliable. Connection-oriented protocols are more reliable and slower. As each packet reaches the destination its receipt is acknowledged. This procedure ensures that all data is received and is accurate.

Internet related protocols provide addressing and routing information, error checking, retransmission requests, and rules for communicating in a particular networking environment. The services providing these protocols are called 'link services'.

TCP / IP Protocol : This is the protocol used by the Internet. TCP / IP (Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol) protocols include the specifications that identify individual computers and that enable computer to exchange data. They also include rules for several categories of application programs, so programs that run on different kinds of computer and talk to one another. For example, someone using a Macintosh (MAC) computer can exchange data with a UNIX computer on the Internet.

IP is a connectionless protocols. It is fast but unreliable. It provides source and destination addressing and routing. TCP is connection-oriented, so it provides more reliable delivery. TCP is responsible for message fragmentation and reassembly. It uses a sequencing function to ensure that the packets are reassembled in the correct order.

Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) : This is a protocol that World Wide Web clients and servers use to communicate. A hypertext document is a specially encoded file that uses HTML. This language allows a document's author to embed hypertext links (hyper links) in the document. HTTP and hyper links are the foundations of the WWW.

Universal Resources Locator (URL) : This is a standardized way of responding different documents, media and network services on World Wide Web. URL looks like this :

type :// address / path /

In a URL, type specifies the type of protocol server in which the file is located, address is the address of the server, and path is the location within the file structure of the server. The path includes the list of folders or directories where the file is located. When a URL ends with a folder name, the URL includes a final slash. URL gives every document on the Web a separate addressing entity. For examples :

http://www.boddunan.com/submit-an-article.html