The word “protocol” crops up all over the place in IT, usually describing the details of how to exchange data between requester and replier. Thus we have HTTP, short for hypertext transfer protocol, which explains how to communicate with a webserver; SMTP, or simple mail transfer protocol, which governs sending and receiving email; and BGP, the border gateway protocol, by means of which ISPs tell each other which internet destinations they can help deliver data to, and how quickly.

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