TCP and HTTP?

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I never understand when to use either of these. People always talk that - "...can be transferred over TCP or HTTP...." why there is "Or" in between TCP and HTTP? i understand, HTTP internally rely on TCP for transporting.

1. When to use TCP or HTTP?
2. What extra HTTP can do which TCP does not?
3. Can anybody point me to a nice pictorial representation where the usage of TCP and HTTP depicted. (sorry for my dumb questions)

Thanks.

Posted 12-Aug-09 7:38am

Member 2324483

Updated 13-Oct-09 1:29am

Jörgen Sigvardsson

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Mark Salsbery · Answer 1 · 2009-08-12T08:24:00

You can't really compare them. In a protocol stack, HTTP would be above TCP/IP
assuming HTTP is using TCP/IP for its transpor protocol.

HTTP is often used with TCP/IP as its transport protocol but TCP/IP isn't required.

TCP/IP provides reliable transfer of a stream of bytes, and that's all.

HTTP is a request/reply protocol, often implemented using TCP/IP to transfer
data between clients and servers.

You could probably do a little research - I bet these are two of the most documented
protocols on the web...

HTTP[^]
TCP/IP[^]