How to understand network protocols?

Question

I work in web development, but I don\'t have a great understanding of network protocols. I recall hearing an analogy that TCP, HTTP, and SSL can be thought of as a series of

Answer 1

For the throughout description of TCP/IP networking (without physical layer, e.g., Ethernet), pick TCP/IP Illustrated by Stevens. If you going to do some low-level network programming, Unix network programming by the same author is the best.