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One of the joys of studying computer science is spotting a familiar concept in new surroundings. It’s a wonderful “aha!” moment as you almost literally feel your mind reaching some deeper insight. In this post, we will answer the common question “what is an Application Programming Interface (API)?”. I’ll illustrate it with various examples of APIs throughout the software stack. In doing so I hope to develop your intuition for when and why APIs are so useful.

This post is part of a series: Introduction Protocols Internet Protocol User Datagram Protocol Transmission Control Protocol Domain Name System Welcome to the final post in this series! It’s been a long time coming, I know. Unfortunately, various life things got in the way and prevented me writing as much as I’d have liked. But fear delay no more! In this post, we’ll round off the series by looking at the Domain Name System (DNS).

This post is part of a series: Introduction Protocols Internet Protocol User Datagram Protocol Transmission Control Protocol Domain Name System Let’s get some services! In previous posts, I talked a whole load about how the transport layer provides communication services before presenting you with UDP, which provides barely any services. The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is the main transport layer protocol on the Internet and it provides many useful services.

This post is part of a series: Introduction Protocols Internet Protocol User Datagram Protocol Transmission Control Protocol Domain Name System Hello, transport layer! The User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is a simple, no frills protocol that plays an important, but sometimes neglected, role on the Internet. UDP is preferred when its main rival, TCP, is too heavyweight. It’s our first protocol on the transport layer, so let’s begin by reviewing that.

This post is part of a series: Introduction Protocols Internet Protocol User Datagram Protocol Transmission Control Protocol Domain Name System Previously we looked at the overall design of the Internet and how protocols work. Now we’re ready to get into the real core of how things work. The Internet Protocol (IP) is the magic that makes the Internet possible. It’s responsible for routing packets across network boundaries and so enables internetwork communication.