TCP/IP

Acronym for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol.  A set of computer-to-computer communications protocols first developed for the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in the late 1970s.  The set of TCP/IP protocols encompass media access, packet transport, session communications, file transfer, e-mail, and terminal emulation.

TCP/IP is supported by a very large number of hardware and software vendors, and is available on many different computers from PCs to mainframes.  Many corporations, universities, and government agencies use TCP/IP, and it is also the foundation of the Internet.