There are 2 ways to ensure host/target communication through TCP/IP:
1. In this case both the host and target are connected to the network through the UTP cable. In this case, the target must have a static IP address. Any computer on a network is assigned an IP address by the DHCP server at start-up. A static IP address means that a computer on a network always gets assigned the same IP address. This is to ensure that the host machine always communicates to the target machine. If a different machine on the network gets the target machine's IP address, the the host will end up pinging this machine rather than the target; it is for this reason that the target should have a static address in such a scenario.
2. Instead of being on a network, the host and target can be connected directly. For this, you will have to use a crossover UTP cable with RJ45 connectors . The host and target computers in this case should have static IP addresses Ensure that the cable used in this scenario is the cross over cable.
UTP cable refers to unshielded Twisted Pair cables. This is the most commonly used cable for Ethernet communication.
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