TCP/IP (transport control protocol/internet protocol) is actually a “stack” of two protocols. IP is a part of the OSI network layer, while TCP is on top of it, as a part of the OSI transport and session layers.
Officially, there is an OSI layer between the physical layer (the NIC) and the network layer (IP). This OSI layer is called the “data link layer”. For the purpose of our topic, however, the device driver handles both the physical layer and the data link layer. This means that once the proper device driver is loaded for a NIC, there is no need to worry about the data link layer.
Getting back to TCP/IP, the two protocols are often lumped together (along with UDP) when a NIC is configured for a particular network.
Abstractly, IP is a protocol that permits addressing between two devices on a network of networks. In order to configure a NIC for IP, we need several important pieces of information. The following sections describe what are needed, and why they are needed.