Establishing a TCP Connection

TCP uses segments to determine whether the receiving system is ready to receive the data. When the sending TCP wants to establish connections, TCP sends a segment that is called a SYN to the TCP protocol on the receiving host. The receiving TCP returns a segment that is called an ACK to acknowledge the successful receipt of the segment. The sending TCP sends another ACK segment, then proceeds to send the data. This exchange of control information is referred to as a three-way handshake.