UDP or TCP

[MoNksBaNe_Agahnim]

What benifits do each bring? I know TCP is guareented to reach its destination and UDP isn't guarenteed, and i think TCP/IP is used the most now a days, but what does each bring that the other doesn't? Such as which times would you use TCP and not UDP and vise versa. Thanks for any information givin

[Grok]

UDP:  low overhead, very fast, nobody cares about lost packets.
TCP:  bigger, slower than UDP, when its gotta be there.

[iago]

UDP is good for stuff that you can just send off and not worry a lot whether or not it ever reaches its destination.  Examples might be computer games, DNS Lookups, pings, and other stuff.  It has very low overhead, and is much faster.

TCP is good if you need a sustained connection, and you require notification if the host is no longer available.  Examples could be downloading files, chatrooms, and other stuff.

[MoNksBaNe_Agahnim]

awesome thanks for the info i appreciate it. What does low overhead mean?

[j0k3r]

I think UDP is used for streaming video, no?

[iago]

awesome thanks for the info i appreciate it. What does low overhead mean?

When you send UDP, very little else is sent either way, so it's fast.

When you send TCP, a connection needs to be maintained, so a lot of data is sent both ways that have nothing to do with the connection stuff, so it's slower and takes more processing but it's more reliable.

[Thing]

http://www.protocols.com/pbook/tcpip1.htm may be of some help to you.

[iago]

Also, it's easier for UDP to spoof their return address and port and to get through firewalls