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    1.6 TCP Header

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    Zaid Mohd
    The document discusses the TCP header and its fields. It explains that TCP establishes a connection before sending data and uses acknowledgments. It then describes each field in the TCP header, including the source and destination ports, sequence and acknowledgment numbers, flags, window size, checksum, and options. It provides an example TCP header from Wireshark to illustrate these fields.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    1.6 TCP Header

    Uploaded by

    Zaid Mohd
    53 views2 pages
    The document discusses the TCP header and its fields. It explains that TCP establishes a connection before sending data and uses acknowledgments. It then describes each field in the TCP header, including the source and destination ports, sequence and acknowledgment numbers, flags, window size, checksum, and options. It provides an example TCP header from Wireshark to illustrate these fields.

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    1.6 TCP Header

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    The document discusses the TCP header and its fields. It explains that TCP establishes a connection before sending data and uses acknowledgments. It then describes each field in the TCP header, including the source and destination ports, sequence and acknowledgment numbers, flags, window size, checksum, and options. It provides an example TCP header from Wireshark to illustrate these fields.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    53 views2 pages

    1.6 TCP Header

    Uploaded by

    Zaid Mohd
    The document discusses the TCP header and its fields. It explains that TCP establishes a connection before sending data and uses acknowledgments. It then describes each field in the TCP header, including the source and destination ports, sequence and acknowledgment numbers, flags, window size, checksum, and options. It provides an example TCP header from Wireshark to illustrate these fields.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    TCP Header

    12 August, 2015

    11:31 PM

    TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) is a reliable transport protocol as it establishes a connection


    before sending any data and everything that it sends is acknowledged by the receiver. In this
    lesson we will take a closer look at the TCP header and its different fields. Heres what it looks like:

    Lets walk through all these fields:


    Source port: this is a 16 bit field that specifies the port number of the sender.
    Destination port: this is a 16 bit field that specifies the port number of the receiver.
    Sequence number: the sequence number is a 32 bit field that indicates how much data is sent
    during the TCP session. When you establish a new TCP connection (3 way handshake) then the
    initial sequence number is a random 32 bit value. The receiver will use this sequence number and
    sends back an acknowledgment. Protocol analyzers like wireshark will often use a relative
    sequence number of 0 since its easier to read than some high random number.
    Acknowledgment number: this 32 bit field is used by the receiver to request the next TCP
    segment. This value will be the sequence number incremented by 1.
    DO: this is the 4 bit data offset field, also known as the header length. It indicates the length of the
    TCP header so that we know where the actual data begins.
    RSV: these are 3 bits for the reserved field. They are unused and are always set to 0.
    Flags: there are 9 bits for flags, we also call them control bits. We use them to establish
    connections, send data and terminate connections:
    URG: urgent pointer. When this bit is set, the data should be treated as priority over other
    data.
    ACK: used for the acknowledgment.
    PSH: this is the push function. This tells an application that the data should be transmitted
    immediately and that we dont want to wait to fill the entire TCP segment.
    RST: this resets the connection, when you receive this you have to terminate the connection
    right away. This is only used when there are unrecoverable errors and its not a normal way
    to finish the TCP connection.
    SYN: we use this for the initial three way handshake and its used to set the initial sequence
    number.
    FIN: this finish bit is used to end the TCP connection. TCP is full duplex so both parties will
    have to use the FIN bit to end the connection. This is the normal method how we end an
    connection.
    Window: the 16 bit window field specifies how many bytes the receiver is willing to receive. It is
    used so the receiver can tell the sender that it would like to receive more data than what it is
    currently receiving. It does so by specifying the number of bytes beyond the sequence number in
    the acknowledgment field.
    Checksum: 16 bits are used for a checksum to check if the TCP header is OK or not.
    Urgent pointer: these 16 bits are used when the URG bit has been set, the urgent pointer is used
    to indicate where the urgent data ends.
    Options: this field is optional and can be anywhere between 0 and 320 bits.
    To see these fields in action, its best to play around with wireshark. Heres an example of the first
    part of the TCP three way handshake. I highlighted all the fields:

    Rene - CCNA Page 1

    Above you can see the source and destination port. The sequence number is 0 but wireshark tells
    us that this is a relative sequence number. In reality, its something else. You can see the SYN bit
    has been set in the flags, the window size, checksum, urgent pointer and options.
    TCP is a complex protocol but hopefully this lesson has helped to understand what the TCP header
    looks like. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment.
    From <https://networklessons.com/ip-routing/tcp-header/>

    Rene - CCNA Page 2

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