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Digital Literacy How the Internet Works The Internet TCP/IP

Pundalik Sutar
Pundalik Sutar
654 Points
Posted by Pundalik Sutar
Pundalik Sutar
654 Points

Incorrect information in the video at 0:24

The information provided from 0:24 onwards, which states TCP creates packets, is incorrect. TCP Layer 4 protocol and IP is layer 3 protocol. Layer 4 protocal creates segments and then segment is encapsulated in Layer 3 protocol to create a packet. Please update this information to avoid any confusion for beginners. Thank you

Nickolas Runnion
Nickolas Runnion
1,902 Points
Nickolas Runnion
Nickolas Runnion
1,902 Points

I would appreciate a response from treehouse about the comment above. I am slightly confused now. Thought I had an understanding after the video.....

1 Answer

Sam Hall
PLUS
Sam Hall
Courses Plus Student 8,636 Points
Sam Hall
Sam Hall
Courses Plus Student 8,636 Points

I'm not Treehouse staff, nor an expert in network communications, but after seeing Pundalik's comment and doing a little reading/research, I found a bit on Wikipedia which clarified this for me (source):

Transmission Control Protocol accepts data from a data stream, divides it into chunks, 
and adds a TCP header creating a TCP segment. The TCP segment is then encapsulated 
into an Internet Protocol (IP) datagram, and exchanged with peers.

The term TCP packet appears in both informal and formal usage, whereas in more precise 
terminology segment refers to the TCP protocol data unit (PDU), datagram to the IP PDU, 
and frame to the data link layer PDU.

The unit of data involved does technically have a different name depending on protocol 'layer' that is involved.

In these videos, though, I think Joy is using the word 'packet' in the informal sense, to explain only the basic concepts of what TCP/IP suite does (i.e TCP splits/resembles data and IP tells data where to and where it should return to).

This video is only an introduction after all.

Other introductions/simplified explanations of TCP/IP use the word 'packet' in this way too.