Tomer Gabel - How shit works: TCP/IP

From the top of the stack, networks are remarkably simple to use. Just throw in a couple machines, some cables, a network switch and HTTP server, stir gently and season to taste, right? Your go-to high level protocol (HTTP anyone?) builds on a hierarchy of seemingly simple abstractions that hide immense complexity, and these abstractions inevitably leak. In the fourth part of this series we'll take a closer look at everyone's favorite protocol TCP/IP, enumerate the challenges it faces and see how it aims to solve them. With luck, you'll come away understanding enough so that next time you run into Connection Reset by Peer issues or SO_LINGER you'll have some idea what you're up against.