Internet Control Message Protocol: Difference between revisions

| purpose = Auxiliary protocol for IPv4<ref name="RFC">{{citeRef IETFRFC|1812|rp=52}}

The '''Internet Control Message Protocol''' ('''ICMP''') is a supporting [[Communications protocol|protocol]]{{Ref RFC|792}} in the [[Internet protocol suite]]. It is used by [[network device]]s, including [[Router (computing)|routers]], to send error messages and operational information indicating success or failure when communicating with another [[IP address]]. For example, an error is indicated when a requested service is not available or that a [[host (network)|host]] or router could not be reached.<ref name="Forouzan">{{cite book | author=Forouzan, Behrouz A. | title=Data Communications And Networking | url=https://archive.org/details/datacommunicatio00foro_184 | url-access=limited | edition=Fourth | publisher=McGraw-Hill | location=Boston | year=2007 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/datacommunicatio00foro_184/page/n657 621]–630 | isbn=978-0-07-296775-3 }}</ref> ICMP differs from [[transport protocol]]s such as [[Transmission Control Protocol|TCP]] and [[User Datagram Protocol|UDP]] in that it is not typically used to exchange data between systems, nor is it regularly employed by end-user network applications (with the exception of some diagnostic tools like [[Ping (networking utility)|ping]] and [[traceroute]]).

ICMPA forseparate [[IPv4]]Internet isControl definedMessage inProtocol {{IETF RFC|792}}. A separate(called [[ICMPv6]], defined by RFC 4443,) is used with [[IPv6]].{{Ref RFC|4443}}