Today, all of our devices are connected to the internet in one way or another. But that's not all; devices also communicate with one another. How these devices communicate and transmit/exchange/share information is where "networking" comes into play. Networking is a very complex topic. It is more than just connecting a user to the internet; it involves many types and flavors of protocols, software, hardware, and technologies, many times all used simultaneously. Although it is not possible to cover that complexity in this book, we will review the essentials of some networking topics so that you can have an idea of how it all works in macOS and to make the most of its available networking capabilities.

This chapter covers aspects related to network configuration that are specific to macOS. We will start with some basic concepts to refresh your...