What Is Protocol?

A protocol is the "language" of computers. It's how two or more computers communicate with each other. It's like this: Your friend wants to talk to you, but they speak a different language than you. They're from another country and just learned your language in school, but they don't know it very well, yet they know how to say some basic phrases like "hello" and "goodbye". So, what do you do? You figure out a way for them to learn your language! Maybe you tell them all the words that matter most to you, your favorite foods, places where you live, and essential people in your life, and then they try their best to learn those words so they can understand what you're saying when you talk about them later on down the line. That's what protocols are like. They're ways for computers (or people) who don't speak each other's languages to communicate with each other. A protocol is a set of rules that govern how computers communicate with each other on a network. These rules are necessary because networks are made up of many different types of equipment, which all need to be able to talk to one another for any work to get done. The protocols tell each computer exactly how it should behave during the conversation, such as when it should send data or stop it or whether it can even talk! If you've ever tried to speak to a computer, you know it can be challenging to get your point across. Like humans, computers speak different languages and have different ways of communicating. Just like humans, they need a common language to communicate effectively. That's where protocols come in. A protocol is a set of rules for communication between computers or people and computers! Think of it as an international language that everyone uses to communicate with each other. For example, suppose you want to send an email from one person to another. In that case, specific rules define how the message gets transmitted from one computer (or person) over the Internet or your local area network (LAN). These rules are called protocols. They tell your computer exactly when to send the message through the web so it arrives at its destination without being corrupted or erased.