What is meant by a handshaking protocol?
The protocol is just the series of technical rules that this basic process must follow. For example, when a tcp connection is initiated by compter1 the protocol is to send a SYN packet to a specific port on Computer2. Computer2 then, if accepting the connection, sends an ACK packet back to Computer1. From that point on the tcp connection is considered open and all future packets will have both the SYN and ACK bits until the connection is closed.
