Protocol

Updated: 10/07/2019 by Computer Hope
Metal spheres connected to a central sphere.

Sometimes called an access method, a protocol is a standard used to define a method of exchanging data over a computer network, such as local area network, Internet, Intranet, etc. Each protocol has its own method of how to handle data in the following situations.

  • How data is formatted when sent.
  • What to do with data once received.
  • How data is compressed.
  • How to check for errors in the data.

Likely the most important protocol is TCP/IP (transmission control protocol/Internet protocol) which is used to govern the communications of every computer connected to the Internet. HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), used to transmit data over the world wide web (Internet), is "carried" by TCP/IP. Below is a list of the various protocols currently listed in the Computer Hope dictionary.

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M
N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

A

ADSI
Aloha
AppleTalk
ARP
ASP

B

BGMP
BGP
BOOTP

C

CHAP
CIFS
CTCP

D

DDP
DHCP

E

EAP
EDIINT
EIGRP
Ethernet
EtherTalk

F

FDHP
Frame relay
FSP
FTP

G

None

H

H.323
HDLC
HTTP

I

ICA
ICMP
IGES
IGMP
IGP
IGRP
IMAP
IP
IPsec
IPv4
IPv6
IPX/SPX

J

None

K

Kerberos
Kermit

L

L2TP
LAPM
LDAP
LFAP

M

Mailto
MNP
MPLS

N

NBT
NCP
NetBEUI
NNTP
NSP
NTP

O

OSPF

P

PEP
PIM
POP
PPPoE
PPP
PPTP

Q

None

R

RAP
RARP
RDP
RIP
RLP
RTP
RTSP
RTTP

S

SFTP
SLIP
SNAP
SMTP
SNMP
SOAP
SOCKS
SSH
STP

T

TFTP
TCP/IP
TKIP

U

UDP

V

VOIP
VRRP

W

WAP

X

X.25

Y

None

Z

ZIP

Communications protocol, Connectionless, Network terms